WISDOM, 


WIT     AND     WHIMS 


OP 


EMBRACING 

THE   MOST   IMPORTANT   AND   INTERESTING   INCIDENTS   OF   THEIR 

HISTORY,    THEIR    PERSONAL    MANNERS    AND    HABITS,    AND 

ANECDOTES  OP  THEIR  INTERCOURSE  AMONG  THE  HIGH 

AND    THE  LOW,  WITH  THEIR  MOST  REMARKABLE 

APOTHEGMS.  PROVERBS,  AND  PITHY  REPLIES 

TO  DIFFICULT  AND  CURIOUS  QUESTIONS, 

ALPHABETICALLY   ARRANGED. 


BY  JOSEPH  BANVAED,  A.M., 

AUTHOR  or  "PLYMOUTH  AKD  rnr  P:LCRI-£S,"  "  NOV^LT.ES  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD," 

"  ROMANCE   Ojf    VMFRTSAN    HISTORY,1'    ETC.,    ETC. 


NEW     YORK: 
SHELDON,    LAMPORT    &    BLAKEMAN, 

115    NASSAU    STREET. 

1855. 


33I7/ 


Entered,   according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  >ear  1854,  by 
JOSEPH    B  A  N  V  A  R  D , 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States,  for  the 
Southern  District  of  New  York. 


*.•     • 

•        •  • 

8TEREOTYPKD    BY 

TH01.IAS    B.    SMITH 
216  Williiim  St.,  N.  Y. 


•    '  .  '    PRINTED    BY 

E     O.   JENKINS, 
1 1 4  Nassau  St 


WISDOM,  WIT,  AND  WHIMS 


OF 


DISTINGUISHED    ANCIENT    PHILOSOPHERS. 


248109 


f 


IN  preparing  the  present  volume,  the  compiler  availed 
himself  of  the  works  of  various  authors,  the  principal  of 
which  were,  "  The  History  of  Philosophy  from  the  Earliest 
Periods,  drawn  up  from  Brucker's  Historia  Critica  Phi- 
losophise, by  William  Enfield,  LL.D ;"  "The  Lives  and 
Opinions  of  Eminent  Philosophers,  by  Diogenes  Laertius, 
translated  by  C.  D.  Yonge,  B.  A.;"  and  "  Stanley's  History 
of  Philosophy  and  Lives  of  the  Philosophers,"  neither  of 
which  has  ever  been  published  in  this  country. 

No  attempt  is  made  to  develop  the  various  systems  of 
Philosophy  which  at  different  ages  have  prevailed,  but  sim- 
ply to  present  the  most  interesting  and  important  events 
in  the  history  of  the  philosophers  themselves.  The  work 
contains  a  great  amount  of  curious  and  instructive  infor- 
mation, which,  hitherto,  has  not  been  accessible  to  the  gen- 
eral reader.  The  most  of  those  whose  memoirs  are  here 
given  were  authors,  and  many  of  them  produced  numer- 
ous works.  There  were  also  many  philosophers  of  the  same 
names ;  but  in  the  following  pages,  reference  has  been  made 
only  to  the  most  distinguished. 


PAGE 

.  13 

/ESCHINES 13 

ALCM^EON .15 

AL-FAKABI 15 

AL-KENDI 16 

ANACHAESIS 17 

ANAXAEOHUS          .        .        . 20 

ANAXAGOEAS 21 

ANAXILAUS 24 

ANAXIHANDEE 24 

AJSTTISTHENES 26 

APOLLONIUS 34 

ABCESILAUS 40 

AECHYTAS 47" 

AEISTIPPUS 48 

AEISTON 56 

AEISTOTLE 57 

AUKELIUS 72 

AVEEEOES 75 

AVIOENNA 78 

BELUS 80 

BIAS  ..........  81 

BION  84 


X  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CALANTJS                     •  89 

CALVISIUS  TAURUS  .....                 .  90 

CATO. 91 

CAENEADES 96 

CHILD 99 

CHEYSIPPUS .         .102 

GICEEO 107 

CLEANTHES     .........  112 

OLEOBULTJS. 115 

CEANTOR        .........  117 

OEATES 119 

DEMETEIUS     .........  124 

DEMETEIUS  OF  COEINTH 127 

DEMOCEITUS 127 

DEMONAX  .         .         .         .         .                 .        .         .  130 

DIOGENES 132 

DIOGENES,  THE  BABYLONIAN       .        .        .        .        .  158 

DIAGOEAS 158 

EDDIN  SADI 160 

EMPEDOOLES 163 

EPICTETUS 169 

EPICUEUS 170 

EPIMENIDES 182 

EEIGENA,  J.  SOOTUS 185 

EUBULIDES 186 

EUCLID 187 

EUDOXUS 189 

EUSEBIUS 189 

FAVOEINUS 190 

CKRBEET  191 


CONTENTS.  XI 

I'AGK 

HEGESIAS 191 

HERAOLIDES .         .192 

HEEACLITUS        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  194 

HIPPAROHIA   .........  199 

HIEROCLES.         ........  200 

HlLLEL    . 200 

HTPATIA 201 

JULIAN 204 

LACYDES    .........  206 

LTCON 207 

MAXIMUS 211 

MEXEDEMUS  .........  212 

MOXIMUS    .........  222 

HUSONIUS 223 

PITTACUS   .........  223 

PERIAXDER 227 

PHERECYDES      ........  231 

PLATO 233 

PLIXY 254 

POLEMO 257 

PROCLUS     .........  259 

PROTAGOEAS 261 

PYRRHO 263 

PYTHAGOKAS 268 

QULXTIUS  TUBER: 296 

SENECA  .         .  296 

SIMON 303 

SIMON  MAGUS.  301 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

SOCRATES 304 

SOLON 333 

SPETJSIPPUS 368 

STILPO 370 

STEATO 373 

THALES  .                                  374 

THEMISTIUS 381 

THEOPHRASTTTS 382 

XENOORATES 335 

XENOPHON     ....  888 


390 

ZENO.  THE  ELEATIO    .  406 


WISDOM,  WIT,  AND  WHIMS 

OF 

DISTINGUISHED    ANCIENT    PHILOSOPHERS. 


^EDESIUS. 

was  of  Cappadocia.  He  pretended  to  super- 
natural communications  with  the  Deity,  and  practised  theurgic 
arts.  Among  the  wonderful  events  which  are  said  to  have 
happened  to  him,  one  is,  that  in  answer  to  his  prayer,  his  future 
fate  was  revealed  to  him  in  hexameter  verses,  which  suddenly 
appeared  upon  the  palm  of  his  left  hand. 


^ESCHINES.  , 

was  the  son  of  Oharinus,  the  sausage-maker,  but, 
as  some  writers  say,  of  Lysanias ;  he  was  a  citizen  of  Athens, 
of  an  industrious  disposition  from  his  boyhood  upwards,  on 
which  account  he  never  quitted  Socrates. 

And  this  induced  Socrates  to  say,  the  only  one  who  knows 
how  to  pay  us  proper  respect  is  the  son  of  the  sausage-seller. 
Idomeneus  asserts,  that  it  was  he  who,  in  the  prison,  tried  to 
persuade  Socrates  to  make  his  escape,  and  not  Crito.  But 
that  Plato,  as  he  was  rather  inclined  to  favor  Aristippus,  at- 
tributed his  advice  to  Crito. 

2 


14  ,-ESCHINES- 


discovered  an  early  thirst  after  knowledge,  and, 
though  oppressed  by  poverty,  devoted  himself  to  the  pursuit 
of  wisdom  under  the  tuition  of  Socrates.  When  he  first  be- 
came his  disciple,  he  told  Socrates,  that  the  only  thing  which 
it  was  in  his  power  to  present  him,  in  acknowledgment  of  his 
kindness  in  instructing  him,  was  himself.  Socrates  replied, 
that  he  accepted,  and  valued  the  present,  but  that  he  hoped 
to  render  it  more  valuable  by  culture.  He  adhered  to  his  mas- 
ter with  unalterable  fidelity  and  perseverance,  and  enjoyed  his 
particular  friendship. 

Having  spent  many  years  in  Athens,  without  being  able  to 
rise  above  the  poverty  of  his  birth,  he  determined,  after  the 
example  of  Plato,  and  others,  to  visit  the  Court  of  Dionysius, 
the  tyrant  of  Sicily,  who  was  at  that  time,  either  through 
vanity  or  jealousy,  a  general  patron  of  philosophers.  Upon 
his  arrival  in  Syracuse,  though  slighted,  on  account  of  his 
poverty,  by  Plato,  he  was  introduced  to  the  prince  by  Aris- 
tippus,  and  was  liberally  rewarded  for  his  Socratic  dialogues. 
He  remained  in  Sicily  till  the  expulsion  of  the  tyrant,  and  then 
returned  to  Athens.  Here,  not  daring  to  become  a  public 
rival  of  Plato  or  Aristippus,  he  taught  philosophy  in  private, 
and  received  payment  for  his  instructions.  Afterwards,  in 
order  to  provide  himself  with  a  more  plentiful  subsistence,  he 
appeared  as  a  public  orator  ;  and  Demosthenes,  probably  be- 
cause he  was  jealous  of  his  abilities  (for  he  excelled  in  elo- 
quence), became  his  opponent.  Besides  orations  and  epistles, 
.^Eschines  wrote  seven  Socratic  dialogues  in  the  true  spirit  of 
his  master,  on  temperance,  moderation,  humanity,  integrity, 
and  other  virtues.  Of  these  only  three  are  extant. 

Timon  said  of  him,  "  The  speeches  of  JEschines  which  do 
not  convince  any  one."  Aristippus  suspected  the  genuiness 
of  some  of  his  dialogues  ;  accordingly,  they  say  that  when  he 
was  reciting  some  of  them  at  Megara,  he  ridiculed  him,  and 
said  to  him,  "  O  you  thief,  where  did  you  get  that?" 

The  account  as  given  by  Stanley  is,  that  being  very  poor, 


ALCM^EON AL-FARABI.  15 

Socrates  bade  him  take  some  of  Ms  dialogues  and  make  money 
with  them,  which,  Aristippus  suspecting  when  he  read  them 
at  Megara,  derided  him,  saying,  "  How  came  you  by  these 
plagiary  ?" 

At  another  time  Aristippus  falling  out  with  him,  was  asked 
what  became  of  his  friendship  ?  He  answered,  "  It  is  asleep, 
but  I  will  wake  it."  He  used  to  define  the  chief  good,  as  a 
gentle  motion  tending  to  sensation. 


ALCM^EON. 

ALCM^EON  of  Crotona,  was  a  disciple  of  Pythagoras.  He  at- 
tained a  high  degree  of  reputation  for  his  knowledge  of  nature 
and  of  medicine.  He  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  person  who 
attempted  the  dissection  of  a  dead  body. 

He  taught  that  the  moon  is  in  the  form  of  a  boat,  and  when 
the  bottom  of  the  boat  is  turned  towards  the  earth,  it  is  invisible. 
The  brain  is  the  chief  seat  of  the  soul.  Health  consists  in  pre- 
serving a  due  mean  between  the  extremes  of  heat  and  cold, 
dryness  and  moisture. 


AL-FARABI. 

ONE  of  the  most  celebrated  philosophers  of  the  school  of 
Bagdat  was  Al-Farabi,  or  more  properly  Abu  ISTasr,  a  native  of 
Balch  Farab,  who  flourished  in  the  tenth  century.  He  was 
born  of  wealthy  parents ;  but,  preferring  the  pursuits  of  philo- 
sophy to  those  of  riches,  he  devoted  himself  to  study  at  Bag- 
dat, where  he  made  such  proficiency  in  learning,  that  he  be- 
came one  of  the  most  eminent  philosophers  of  his  age.  He 
studied  mathematics  and  medicine,  but  chiefly  excelled  in 


16  JACOBUS-AL-KENDI. 

logic.  His  learning  and  abilities  were  universally  admired,  and 
great  men  and  princes  were  emulous  to  load  him  with  honors 
and  rewards.  But  Al-Farabi  refused  every  offer  of  this 
kind ;  and,  either  through  his  love  of  philosophy,  or  perhaps 
through  a  natural  gloominess  of  temper,  gave  himself  up 
to  solitude  and  an  abstemious  life.  He  constantly  slept,  even 
during  winter,  upon  straw ;  his  countenance  was  always  sor- 
rowful, and  he  found  no  consolation  in  anything  but  philoso- 
phy. The  cast  of  his  mind  led  him  to  dread  all  intercourse 
with  the  world  as  destructive  of  innocence,  and  to  lament  the 
imperfection  and  vanity  of  human  life.  He  employed  his  time 
in  study,  and  read  the  writings  of  Aristotle  with  unwearied 
attention.  He  wrote  sixty  distinct  treatises  on  different  parts 
of  the  Aristotelian  philosophy,  which  were  read  and  admired, 
not  only  among  the  Arabians  but  also  among  the  Jews,  who 
began  about  this  time  to  adopt  the  Aristotelian  mode  of  philo- 
sophising. Many  of  his  books  were  translated  from  Arabic 
into  Hebrew. 


JACOBUS-AL-KENDI. 

JACOBUS- AL-KENDI  of  Bassora,  was  an  Arabian  philosopher 
who  flourished  about  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century.  He 
yielded  implicit  submission  to  Aristotle,  and  was  chiefly  em- 
ployed in  interpreting  his  writings.  He  also  studied  mathe- 
matics, astronomy  and  medicine. 

Abulfaragius,  speaking  of  Al-Kendi,  relates  a  memorable 
instance  of  his  moderation  towards  a  malicious  adversary. 
"Whilst  this  philosopher  was  visiting  the  schools  of  Bagdat, 
which  was  at  this  time  the  chief  resort  of  the  learned,  his  at- 
tempts to  promote  the  study  of  philosophy,  and  to  reconcile 
the  doctrines  of  Islamism  with  the  principles  of  reason,  gave 
grea.4:  offence  to  one  of  the  interpreters  of  the  Koran,  who, 


AN  ACH  AR  SIS.  17 

doubtless,  began  to  be  afraid  lest  the  increase  of  knowledge 
should  expose  the  absurdity  of  the  vulgar  superstitions.  This 
bigot  publicly  expressed  the  most  vehement  indignation  against 
Al-Kendi,  and  accused  him  of  impiety  and  heresy.  Al-Kendi, 
however,  instead  of  restraining  the  fury  of  his  persecutor  by 
violence,  as  through  his  interest  with  the  Caliph  he  might 
easily  have  done,  generously  adopted  the  more  gentle  method 
of  attempting  to  subdue  his  malignity  by  enlightening  his  un- 
derstanding. Having  detected  the  design  which  this  Abu 
Maashar  (that  was  the  zealot's  name)  had  formed  upon  his 
life,  he  employed  against  him  no  other  weapons  than  the  mo- 
nitions and  precepts  of  philosophy.  Well  knowing  the  power 
of  wisdom  to  meliorate  the  temper,  he  found  means  to  engage 
a  preceptor  to  instruct  him,  first  in  mathematics,  and  after- 
wards in  philosophy.  The  consequence  was,  that  the  man 
who  had,  not  long  before,  inveighed  with  savage  ferocity 
against  Al-Kendi,  soon  became  sensible  of  his  folly,  and  offered 
himself  as  pupil  to  the  philosopher  whom  he  had  persecuted. 
Al-Kendi  received  him  with  the  most  meritorious  condescen- 
sion, and  his  convert  became  an  ornament  to  his  school.  In 
fine,  on  account  of  his  virtues  no  less  than  his  learning,  Al- 
Kendi  is  entitled  to  an  honorable  rank  among  philosophers. 


ANACHARSIS. 

ANAOHAESIS,  the  Scythian,  was  the  son  of  Gnurus,  the 
brother  of  Caduides,  the  king  of  the  Scythians.  But  his 
mother  was  a  Greek  woman,  owing  to  which  circumstance  he 
understood  both  languages.  He  preferred  the  pursuits  of  wis- 
dom to  those  of  ambition.  He  visited  Athens,  and  was  con- 
ducted by  Toxaris,  his  countryman,  to  the  house  of  Solon,  the 
famous  Athenian  Legislator.  Having  arrived  there,  he  re- 
quested one  of  the  attendants  to  inform  his  master  that  Ana- 
s' 


18  ANACHAESIS. 

charsis  a  Scythian,  was  at  the  door,  and  requested  to  be  re- 
ceived into  the  house  as  his  guest  and  friend.  To  this  message 
Solon's  answer  was,  that  "friendships  are  best  formed  at 
home.1'  To  which  Anacharsis  replied,  "Then  let  Solon,  who 
is  at  home,  make  me  his  friend,  and  receive  me  into  his  house." 
Solon,  struck  with  the  smartness  of  the  reply,  admitted  him  as 
his  guest,  and  finding  him,  on  account  of  his  good  sense  and 
probity,  worthy  of  his  confidence,  allowed  him  to  share  his 
friendship.  Anacharsis,  on  his  part,  became  such  an  admirer 
of  Solon,  that  he  constantly  associated  with  him  till  he  made 
himself  master  of  all  the  knowledge  which  that  wise  man  pos- 
sessed. During  his  residence  in  Athens,  he  was  honored  with 
the  privilege  of  citizenship,  an  honor  never  before  conferred 
upon  a  barbarian. 

After  the  death  of  Solon,  Anacharsis  travelled  through  a 
great  part  of  the  world  in  search  of  wisdom,  and  at  last  re- 
turned into  his  own  country,  probably  with  the  hope  of  com- 
municating to  his  countrymen  the  wisdom  he  had  acquired  in 
Greece.  But  they  were  too  much  attached  to  their  old  opin- 
ions and  customs,  to  endure  with  patience  the  bold  attempt? 
which  he  made  to  introduce  among  them  the  institutions  and 
manners  of  the  Greeks.  As  he  was  one  day  hunting,  an 
arrow,  sent,  some  say,  from  the  hand  of  his  brother,  put  an 
end  to  his  life.  He  lamented  with  his  last  breath  the  jealousy 
and  folly  of  his  countrymen,  who  would  not  suffer  one  wiser 
than  themselves  to  live  among  them. 

Anacharsis  was  famous  for  a  manly  and  nervous  kind  of 
language,  which  was  called,  from  his  country,  Scythian  elo- 
quence. He  is  said  to  have  invented  the  anchor  and  the  pot- 
ter's wheel ;  but  these  instruments  were  known  before  his 
time  ;  perhaps  he  first  introduced  the  use  of  them  among  the 
Scythians.  Among  many  other  ingenious  sayings,  ascribed 
by  Laertius  to  Anacharsis,  are  the  following :  Being  asked  by 
what  means  a  man  addicted  to  intemperance  might  be  taught 
sobriety,  he  replied,  "by  placing  before  his  eyes  a  drunken 


ANACHARSIS.  19 

man.  The  vine,"  he  said,  "  bears  three  kinds  of  fruit ;  the  first, 
pleasure;  the  second,  intoxication;  the  third,  remorse."  An 
Athenian  of  infamous  character  upbraiding  him  with  being  a 
Scythian,  he  said :  "  My  country  is  indeed  a  disgrace  to  me, 
but  you  are  a  disgrace  to  your  country."  The  epistles  which 
bear  his  name  were  probably  produced  at  a  later  period  in 
the  school  of  the  Sophists. 

He  also  said  that  he  marvelled  how  the  Greeks,  who  make 
laws  against  those  who  behave  with  insolence,  honor  Athletse 
because  of  their  beating  one  another.  When  he  had  been  in- 
formed that  the  sides  of  a  ship  were  four  fingers  thick,  he  said, 
"  That  those  who  sailed  in  one  were  removed  by  just  that  dis- 
tance from  death."  He  used  to  say  that  oil  was  a  provocative 
of  madness,  "because  Athleto,  when  anointed  in  the  oil, 
attacked  one  another  with  mad  fury." 

"  How  is  it,"  he  used  to  say,  "  that  those  who  forbid  men 
to  speak  falsely,  tell  lies  openly  in  their  vintners'  shops  ?"  It 
was  a  saying  of  his,  that  he  "  marvelled  why  the  Greeks,  at 
the  beginning  of  a  banquet,  drink  out  of  small  cups,  but  when 
they  have  drunk  a  good  deal,  then  they  turn  to  large  goblets." 
And  this  inscription  is  on  his  statues — "Kestrain  your  tongues, 
your  appetites,  and  your  passions."  He  was  once  asked  if 
the  flute  was  known  among  the  Scythians :  and  he  said, 
"  No,  nor  the  vine  either."  At  another  time,  the  question 
was  put  to  him,  which  was  the  safest  kind  of  vessel  ?  and  he 
said,  "  That  which  is  brought  into  dock."  He  said,  too^  that 
the  strangest  thing  that  he  had  seen  among  the  Greeks  was, 
that  "  They  left  the  smoke*  in  the  mountains,  and  earned  the 
wood  down  to  their  cities."  Once,  when  he  was  asked,  which 
were  the  more  numerous,  the  living  or  the  dead  ?  he  said, 
"  Under  which  head  do  you  class  those  who  are  at  sea." 

*  Some  propose  to  read  karpon,  fruit,  instead  of  kapnon,  smoke,  here  ;  others 
explain  this  saying  as  meaning  that  the  Greeks  avoided  bouses  on  the  hills  in 
order  not  to  be  annoyed  with  the  smoke  from  the  low  cottages,  and  yet  did  not 
use  coal,  but  wood,  which  made  more  smoke. 


20  ANAXABCHUS. 

When  he  was  asked  what  there  was  among  men  which  was 
both  good  and  bad,  he  replied,  "  The  tongue."  He  used  to 
say  "  That  it  was  better  to  have  one  friend  of  great  value, 
than  many  friends  who  were  good  for  nothing."  Another 
saying  of  his  was,  that  "  The  forum  was  an  established  place 
for  men  to  cheat  one  another,  and  behave  covetously."  Being 
once  insulted  by  a  young  man  at  a  drinking  party,  he  said, 
"  O,  young  man,  if  now  that  you  are  young  you  cannot  bear 
Avine,  when  you  are  old  you  will  have  to  bear  water." 

When  beholding  the  tomb  of  Mausolus  he  said,  "A  sump- 
tuous monument  is  a  petrified  fortune."  It  is  said  that  he  was 
never  seen  to  laugh  or  smile. 


ANAXARCHUS. 

ANAXAEOHUS  was  a  native  of  Abdera,  a  pupil  of  Diogenes 
and  an  intimate  acquaintance  of  Alexander.  He  had  for  an 
enemy  Nicocreon,  the  tyrant  of  Cyprus.  On  one  occasion, 
when  Alexander  at  a  banquet  asked  him  what  he  thought  of  the 
entertainment,  he  is  said  to  have  replied,  "  O  king,  everything 
is  provided  very  sumptuously ;  and  the  only  thing  wanted  is 
to  have  the  head  of  some  satrap  served  up ;"  hinting  at  Nico- 
creon.  And  Nicocreon  did  not  forget  his  grudge  against  him 
for  this ;  but  after  the  death  of  the  king,  when  Anaxarchus, 
who  was  making  a  voyage,  was  driven  against  his  will  into 
Cyprus,  he  took  him  and  put  him  in  a  mortar,  and  commanded 
him  to  be  pounded  to  death  with  iron  pestles.  And  then  they 
say  that  he,  disregarding  this  punishment,  uttered  that  cele- 
brated saying,  u  Beat  the  bag  of  Anaxarchus,  but  you  will  not 
beat  Anaxarchus  himself."  And  then,  when  Nicocreon  com- 
manded that  his  tongue  should  be  cut  out,  it  is  said  that  he 
bit  it  off,  and  spit  it  at  him.  And  we  have  written  an  epigram 
upon  him  in  the  following  terms:- 


A  N  A  X  A  G  O  R  A  S.  21 

Beat  more  and  more ;  you're  beating  but  a  bag ; 
Beat,  Anaxarchus  is  in  heav'n  with  Jove. 
Hereafter  Proserpine  will  rack  your  bones, 
And  say,  Thus  perish,  you  accursed  beater. 

Anaxarchus,  on  account  of  the  evenness  of  his  temper  and 
the  tranquillity  of  his  life,  was  called  the  Happy.  And  he  was 
a  man  to  whom  it  was  very  easy  to  reprove  men  and  bring 
them  to  temperance.  Accordingly,  he  produced  an  alteration 
in  Alexander  who  thought  himself  a  God,  for  when  lie  saw 
the  blood  flowing  from  some  wound  that  he  had  received,  he 
pointed  to  him  with,  his  finger,  and  said,  "  This  is  blood,  and 
not: — 

w  Such  stream  as  issues  from  a  wounded  God ; 
Pure  emanation,  uncorrupted  flood, 
Unlike  our  gross,  diseas'd,  terrestrial  blood." 

But  Plutarch  says  that  it  was  Alexander  himself  who  quoted 
these  lines  to  his  friends. 

They  also  tell  a  story  that  Anaxarchus  once  drank  to  him, 
and  then  showed  the  goblet,  and  said : — 

Shall  any  mortal  hand  dare  wound  a  God  ? 


ANAXAGOKAS. 

ANAXAGOKAS  of  Clazomene,  born  on  the  first  year  of  the 
seventeenth  Olympiad,  was  a  disciple  of  Anaximenes.  He  in- 
herited from  his  parents  a  patrimony,  which  might  have  se- 
cured him  independence  and  distinction  at  home;  but  such 
was  his  thirst  after  knowledge,  that  about  the  twentieth  year 
of  his  age,  he  left  his  country,  without  taking  proper  precau- 
tions concerning  his  estate,  and  went  to  reside  at  Athens. 
Here  he  diligently  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  eloquence  and 
poetry,  and  was  particularly  conversant  with  the  works  of 
Homer,  whom  he  admired  as  the  best  preceptor,  not  only  in 


22  ANAXAGORAS. 

writing,  but  in  morals.  Engaging  afterwards  in  speculations 
concerning  nature,  the  fame  of  the  Milesian  school  induced 
him  to  leave  Athens,  that  he  might  attend  upon  the  public  in- 
structions of  Anaximenes.  Under  him  he  became  acquainted 
with  his  doctrines,  and  those  of  his  predecessors,  concerning 
natural  bodies  and  the  origin  of  things.  So  ardently  did  he 
engage  in  these  inquiries,  that  he  said  concerning  himself  that 
he  was  born  to  contemplate  the  heavens.  Visiting  his  native 
city,  he  found  that,  whilst  he  had  been  busy  in  the  pursuit  of 
knowledge,  his  estate  had  run  to  waste ;  upon  which  he  re- 
marked, that  to  this  ruin  he  owed  his  prosperity.  One  of  his 
fellow-citizens  complaining  that  he,  who  was  so  well  qualified, 
both  by  rank  and  ability,  for  public  offices,  had  shown  so  lit- 
tle regard  for  his  country,  he  replied,  "  My  first  care  is  for  my 
country,"  pointing  to  heaven.  After  remaining  for  some  years 
at  Miletus,  he  returned  to  Athens,  and  there  taught  philosophy 
in  private.  Among  his  pupils  were  several  eminent  men,  par- 
ticularly the  tragedian  Euripides,  and  the  orator  and  states- 
man Pericles ;  to  whom  some  add  Socrates  and  Themistocles. 

The  high  degree  of  reputation  which  he  had  acquired  at 
length  excited  the  jealousy  and  envy  of  his  contemporaries,  and 
brought  upon  him  a  cruel  persecution.  It  is  generally  agreed 
that  he  was  thrown  into  prison,  and  condemned  to  death  ; 
and  that  it  was  with  difficulty  that  Pericles  obtained  from  his 
judge  the  milder  sentence  of  fine  and  banishment;  but  the 
nature  of  the  charge  alleged  against  him  is  variously  repre- 
sented. The  most  provable  account  of  the  matter  is,  that  his 
offence  was,  the  propagation  of  new  opinions  concerning  the 
gods,  and  particularly,  teaching  that  the  sun  is  an  inanimate 
fiery  substance,  and  consequently  not  a  proper  object  of  wor- 
ship. There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Anaxagoras,  who  was  in- 
defatigable in  his  researches  into  nature,  ventured,  on  many 
occasions,  to  contradict  and  oppose  the  vulgar  opinions  and 
superstitions.  It  is  related  that  he  ridiculed  the  Athenian 
priests  for  predicting  an  unfortunate  event  from  the  unusual  ap- 


ANAXAGORAS.  23 

pearance  of  a  ram  which  had  but  one  horn ;  and  that,  to  con- 
vince the  people  that  there  was  nothing  in  the  affair  which 
was  not  perfectly  natural,  he  opened  the  head  of  the  animal, 
and  showed  them  that  it  was  so  constructed  as  necessarily  to 
prevent  the  growth  of  the  other  horn.  Such  offensive  free- 
doms .as  these  were  probably  the  cause  of  his  persecution. 
Silenus,  in  the  first  book  of  his  Histories,  says,  that  in  the 
archonship  of  Lysanias  a  large  stone  fell  from  heaven;  and 
that  in  reference  to  this  event  Anaxagoras  said,  that  the 
whole  heaven  was  composed  of  stones,  and  that  by  its  rapid 
revolutions  they  were  all  held  together  ;  and  when  those  revo- 
lutions get  slower,  they  fall  down. 

"When  one  of  his  friends  expressed  regret  on  account  of  his 
banishment  from  Athens,  he  said,  "  It  is  not  I  who  have  lost 
the  Athenians,  but  the  Athenians  who  have  lost  me."  Being 
asked  just  before  his  death,  whether  he  wished  to  be  carried 
for  interment  to  Olazomene,  his  native  city,  he  said,  "  It  is  un- 
necessary ;  the  way  to  the  regions  below  is  everywhere  alike 
open."  In  reply  to  a  message  sent  him,  at  that  time,  by  the 
senate  of  Lampsacus,  requesting  him  to  inform  them  in  what 
manner  they  might  most  acceptably  express  their  respect  for 
his  memory  after  his  decease,  he  said,  "By  ordaining  that  the 
day  of  my  death  be  annually  kept  as  a  holiday  in  all  the 
schools  of  Lampsacus."  His  request  was  complied  with,  and 
the  custom  remained  for  many  centuries.  He  died  about  the 
age  of  seventy-two  years.  The  inhabitants  of  Lampsacus  ex- 
pressed their  high  opinion  of  his  wisdom  by  erecting  him  a 
tomb.  It  is  also  said  that  two  altars  were  raised  in  hongr  of 
his  memory,  one  dedicated  to  Truth,  the  other  to  Mind,  an  ap- 
pellation which  was  given  him  on  account  of  the  doctrine 
which  he  taught  concerning  the  origin  and  formation  of  na- 
ture. 

Two  predictions  are  ascribed  to  him  which  were  remarkably 
fulfilled ;  one  was,  that  on  a  certain  day  a  stone  would  fall 
from  the  sun,  and  on  the  appointed  d<v-T  a  stone  did  fall  from 


24  ANAXILAUS  -  ANAXIMANDER. 


the  SULL  in  a  part  of  Thrace,  near  the  river  jSZgos.  Plutarch 
states  that  in  his  time  this  stone  was  not  only  shown  but 
greatly  reverenced  by  the  Peloponnesians. 

At  another  time  he  signified,  when  the  weather  was  fair, 
that  there  would  be  a  heavy  rain  and  storm,  by  going  to  the 
Olympic  games  in  a  shaggy  skin,  or  leathern  dress,  prepared 
for  such  a  change  ;  and  as  it  did  rain  according  to  his  predic- 
tion, the  people  honored  him  as  though  he  possessed  super- 
natural knowledge. 


ANAXILAUS. 

ANAXILAUS  of  Larissa,  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Augustus, 
professed  himself  a  follower  of  Pythagoras,  but  chiefly  that  he 
might  obtain  the  greater  credit  to  the  pretensions  which  he 
made  to  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  mysteries  of 
nature.  Pliny  relates  several  curious  arts,  by  which  he  raised 
the  wonder  and  terror  of  the  ignorant  multitude,  among 
which  was  that  of  giving  a  livid  and  ghastly  hue  to  the  coun- 
tenance by  means  of  sulphureous  flame.  It  is  probable  that 
he  practised  his  deceptions  under  the  notion  of  supernatural 
operations ;  for  he  was  banished  from  Italy,  by  the  order  of 
Augustus,  for  the  crime  of  magic. 


ANAXIMANDER. 

ANAXIMANDER,  the  son  of  Praxiadas,  was  a  citizen  of  Miletus. 
He  first  taught  philosophy  in  a  public  school,  and  is  therefore 
often  spoken  of  as  the  founder  of  the  Ionic  sect.  He  was  born 
in  the  third  year  of  the  forty-second  Olympiad.  Oiecero  calls 
him  the  friend  and  companion  of  Thales ;  whence  it  is  prob- 


ANAXIMANDER.  25 

able  that  he  was  a  native  of  Miletus.  That  he  was  employed 
in  instructing  youth,  may  be  inferred  from  an  anecdote  related 
concerning  him ;  that,  being  laughed  at  for  singing  (that  is, 
probably,  reciting  his  verses)  ill,  he  said,  "  We  must  endeavor 
to  sing  better,  for  the  sake  of  the  boys."  Anaximander  was 
the  first  who  laid  aside  the  defective  method  of  oral  tradition, 
and  committed  the  principles  of  natural  science  to  writing.  It 
is  related  of  him,  that  he  predicted  an  earthquake ;  but,  that 
he  should  have  been  able  in  the  infancy  of  knowledge  to  do 
what  is,  at  this  day,  beyond  the  reach  of  philosophy,  is  in- 
credible. He  lived  sixty-four  years. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  mathematics  and  astronomy 
were  indebted  to  Anaximander.  He  framed  a  connected  series 
of  geometrical  truths,  and  wrote  a  summary  of  his  doctrine. 
He  was  the  first  who  undertook  to  delineate  the  surface  of 
the  earth,  and  mark  the  divisions  of  land  and  wrater  upon  an 
artificial  globe.  The  invention  of  the  sun-dial  is  ascribed  to 
him.  He  also  was  the  first  discoverer  of  the  gnomon;  and  he 
placed  some  in  Lacedasmon,  on  the  sun-dials  there,  as  Pharori- 
nus  says  in  his  Universal  History,  and  they  showed  the  sol- 
stices and  the  equinoxes  ;  he  also  made  clocks.  He  was  the  first 
person,  too,  who  drew  a  map  of  the  earth  and  sea,  and  he 
also  made  a  globe ;  and  he  published  a  concise  statement  of 
whatever  opinions  he  embraced  or  entertained ;  and  this  trea- 
tise was  met  with  by  Apollodorus,  the  Athenian. 

And  Apollodorus,  in  his  Chronicles,  states,  that  in  the  second 
year  of  the  fifty-eighth  Olympiad,  he  was  sixty-four  years  old. 
And  soon  after  he  died,  having  flourished  much  about  the 
same  time  as  Poly  crates,  the  tyrant,  of  Samos. 


26  ANTISTHENES. 


ANTISTHENES. 

AXTISTIIENES  was  born  at  Athens   about  the  nineteenth 
Olympiad.     His  father  was  an  Athenian,  his  mother  a  Thra 
cian,  or,  according  to  Plutarch,  a  Phrygian. 

Being  on  one  occasion  reproached  because  his  mother  was 
a  Phrygian,  he  replied,  "  Cybele,  the  mother  of  the  gods,  was  a 
Phrygian." 

He  became  the  founder  of  a  school,  the  sole  object  of  which 
was  to  support  a  rigid  moral  discipline. 

In  his  youth  he  was  engaged  in  military  exploits,  and  ac- 
quired fame  by  the  valor  which  he  displayed  in  the  battle  of 
Tanagra.  His  first  studies  were  under  the  direction  of  the 
sophist  Gorgias,  who  instructed  him  in  the  art  of  rhetoric. 
Soon  growing  dissatisfied  with  the  futile  labors  of  this  school, 
he  sought  for  more  substantial  wisdom  from  Socrates.  Capti- 
vated by  the  doctrine  and  the  manner  of  his  new  master,  he 
prevailed  upon  many  young  men,  who  had  been  his  fellow- 
students  under  Gorgias,  to  accompany  him.  So  great  was  his 
ardor  for  moral  wrisdom,  that  though  he  lived  at  Pirrens, 
which  was  at  the  distance  of  forty  stadia  from  the  city,  he 
came  daily  to  Athens  to  attend  upon  Socrates.  This  wise 
man,  at  the  same  time  that  he  made  morality  the  only  subject 
of  his  instructions,  powerfully  recommended  virtuous  manners 
to  his  disciples  by  his  own  example.  Despising  the  pursuits 
of  avarice,  vanity,  and  ambition,  he  sought  the  reward  of  vir- 
tue in  virtue  itself,  and  declined  no  labor  or  suffering  which 
virtue  required.  This  noble  consistency  of  mind  was  the  part 
of  the  character  of  Socrates  which  Antisthenes  chiefly  ad- 
mired; and  he  resolved  to  make  it  the  object  of  his  diligent 
imitation.  "Whilst  he  was  a  disciple  of  Socrates,  he  discovered 
his  propensity  towards  severity  of  manners  by  the  meanness 
of  his  dress.  He  frequently  appeared  in  a  thread-bare  and 
ragged  coat.  Socratos,  who  had  great  penetration  in  dis- 


ANTISTHENES.  27 

covering  the  characters  of  men,  remarking  that  Antisthenes 
took  pains  to  expose  rather  than  conceal  the  tattered  state  of 
his  dress,  said  to  him,  "Why  so  ostentatious?  Through  your 
rags  I  see  your  vanity." 

After  the  death  of  Socrates,  whilst  all  good  men  were  la- 
menting his  fate,  and  were  indignant  against  his  persecutors, 
Antisthenes,  by  a  seasonable  jest,  hastened  the  deserved  pun- 
ishment of  Melitus  and  Anytas.  Meeting  with  certain  young 
men  from  Pontus,  who  came  to  Athens  with  a  design  of  at- 
tending upon  Socrates,  whose  fame  had  reached  their  coun- 
try, he  publicly  introduced  them  to  Anytas,  assuring  them 
that  he  far  exceeded  Socrates  in  wisdom.  This  sarcastic 
encomium  inflamed  the  resentment  of  the  Athenians  who  hap- 
pened to  be  present  against  the  author  of  the  disgrace  which 
had  been  brought  upon  their  city  by  their  putting  to  death  so 
excellent  a  man.  The  consequence  was,  that  Anytas  was  soon 
banished,  and  Melitus  sentenced  to  death. 

Whilst  Plato  and  other  disciples  of  Socrates  were,  after  his 
death  forming  schools  in  Athens,  Antisthenes  chose  for  his 
school  a  public  place  of  exercise  without  the  walls  of  the  city, 
called  the  Cynosargum,  or  the  Temple  of  the  White  Dog; 
whence  some  writers  derive  the  name  of  the  sect  of  which  he 
was  the  founder.  Others  suppose  that  his  followers  were 
called  Cynics  from  the  snarling  humor  of  their  master.  Here 
lie  inculcated,  both  by  precept  and  example,  a  rigorous  disci- 
'  pline.  In  order  to  accommodate  his  own  manners  to  his  doc- 
trine, he  wore  no  other  garment  than  a  coarse  cloak,  suffered 
his  beard  to  grow,  and  carried  a  wallet  and  staff  like  a  wTan- 
deriug  beggar.  Renouncing  all  the  splendid  luxuries  of  life, 
he  contented  himself  with  the  most  simple  diet,  and  refrained 
from  every  kind  of  effeminate  indulgence.  In  his  discourses 
he  censured  the  manners  of  the  age  with  a  degree  of  harsh- 
ness which  produced  him  the  surname  of  the  Dog.  He  ex- 
pressed the  utmost  contempt  for  pleasure,  accounting  it  the 
greatest  evil,  and  saying  that  he  would  rather  be  mad  than 


28  ANTISTH  ENES. 

addicted  to  a  voluptuous  manner  of  living.  Towards  the  close 
of  his  life  the  gloomy  cast  of  his  mind  and  the  moroseness  of 
his  temper  increased  to  such  a  degree,  as  to  render  him 
troublesome  to  his  friends,  and  an  object  of  ridicule  to  his  ene- 
mies. In  his  last  illness  he  was  fretful  and  impatient:  tired 
of  life,  yet  loth  to  die.  When  Diogenes,  at  that  time,  asked 
him  whether  he  needed  a  friend,  Antisthenes  replied,  "  Where 
is  the  friend  that  can  free  me  from  my  pain?"  Diogenes  pre- 
sented him  with  a  dagger,  saying,  "Let  this  free  you:"  but 
Antisthenes  answered,  "I  wish  to  be  freed  from  pain,  not 
from  life."  Neither  his  doctrine  nor  his  manners  were  suf- 
ficiently inviting  to  procure  him  many  followers.  He  paid 
little  respect  to  the  gods  and  the  religion  of  his  country ;  but 
as  might  be  expected  from  a  disciple  of  Socrates,  he  thought 
justly  concerning  the  Supreme  Being.  In  his  book  which 
treats  on  Physics,  says  Cicero,  he  observes  that  "  the  gods 
of  the  people  are  many,  but  the  God  of  nature  is  One."  An- 
tisthenes wrote  many  books,  of  which  none  are  extant,  except 
two  declamations  under  the  names  of  Ajax  and  Ulysses. 

The  sum  of  the  moral  doctrine  of  Antisthenes  and  the 
Cynic  sect  is  this: — Virtue  alone  is  a  sufficient  foundation  for 
a  happy  life.  Virtue  consists,  not  in  a  vain  ostentation  of 
learning,  or  an  idle  display  of  words,  but  in  a  steady  course 
of  right  conduct.  Wisdom  and  virtue  are  the  same.  A  wise 
man  will  always  be  contented  with  his  condition,  and  will  live 
rather  according  to  the  precepts  of  virtue,  than  according  to 
the  laws  or  customs  of  his  country.  Wisdom  is  a  secure  and 
impregnable  fortress;  virtue,  armor  which  cannot  be  taken 
away.  Whatever  is  honorable  is  good;  whatever  is  disgraceful 
is  evil.  Virtue  is  the  only  bond  of  friendship.  It  is  better  to 
associate  with  a  few  good  men  against  a  vicious  multitude, 
than  to  join  the  vicious,  however  numerous,  against  the  good. 
The  love  of  pleasure  is  a  temporary  madness. 

He  was  also  the  first  person  who  ever  gave  a  definition  of 
discourse  ;  saying,  "  Discourse  is  that  which  shows  what  any- 


ANTISTHENES.  29 

thing  is  or  was."  And  he  used  continually  to  say,  u  I  would 
rather  go  mad  than  feel  pleasure."  And,  "  One  ought  to 
attach  one's  self  to  such  women  as  will  thank  one  for  it."  He 
said  once  to  a  youth  from  Pontus,  who  was  on  the  point  of 
coining  to  him  to  be  his  pupil,  and  was  asking  him  what 
things  he  wanted,  "  You  want  a  new  book,  and  a  new  pen, 
and  a  new  tablet ;" — meaning  a  new  mind.  And  to  a  person 
who  asked  him  from  what  country  he  had  better  marry  a 
wife,  he  said,  u  If  you  marry  a  handsome  woman,  she  will  be 
common  ;*  if  an  ugly  woman,  she  will  be  a  punishment  to  you." 
He  was  told  once  that  Plato  spoke  ill  of  him,  and  he  replied, 
"  It  is  a  royal  privilege  to  do  well,  and  to  be  evil  spoken  of." 
When  he  was  being  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  Orpheus, 
and  the  priest  said  that  those  who  were  initiated  enjoyed 
many  good  things  in  the  shades  below,  "  Why,  then,"  said  he, 
"do  not  you  die?"  Being  once  reproached  as  not  being  the 
son  of  two  free  citizens,  he  said,  "And  I  am  not  the  son  of  two 
people  skilled  in  wrestling ;  nevertheless,  I  am  a  skilful  wrest- 
ler." On  one  occasion  he  was  asked  why  he  had  but  few 
disciples,  and  said,  "  Because  I  drove  them  away  with  a  silver 
rod."  When  he  was  asked  why  he  reproved  his  pupils  with 
bitter  language,  he  said,  "Physicians,  too,  use  severe  remedies 
for  their  patients."  Once  he  saw  an  adulterer  running  away, 
and  said,  "  0  unhappy  man !  how  much  danger  could  you 
have  avoided  for  one  obol!"  He  used  to  say,  as  Hecaton  tells 
us  in  his  Apophthegms,  "  That  it  was  better  to  fall  among 
crows,  than  among  flatterers ;  for  that  they  only  devour  the 
dead,  but  the  others  devour  the  living."  When  he  was  asked 
what  was  the  most  happy  event  that  could  take  place  in 
human  life,  he  said,  "  To  die  while  prosperous." 

On  one  occasion  one  of  his  friends  was  lamenting  to  him 
that  he  had  lost  his  memoranda,  and  he  said  to  him,  "  You 
ought  to  have  written  them  on  your  mind,  and  not  on  paper." 

*  There  is  a  play  on  the  similarity  of  the  two  sounds,  koine,  common,  and 
poine,  punishment. 


30  ANTISTHENES. 

A  favorite  saying  of  his  was,  "That  envious  people  were  de- 
voured by  their  own  disposition,  just  as  iron  is  by  rust." 
Another  was,  "  That  those  who  wish  to  be  immortal  ought  to 
live  piously  and  justly."  He  used  to  say,  too,  "  That  cities 
were  ruined  when  they  were  unable  to  distinguish  worthless 
citizens  from  virtuous  ones." 

On  one  occasion  he  was  being1  praised  by  some  wicked  men, 
and  said,  "I  am  sadly  afraid  that  I  must  have  done  some 
wicked  thing."  One  of  his  favorite  sayings  was,  "  That  the  fel- 
lowship of  brothers  of  one  mind  was  stronger  than  any  forti- 
fied city."  He  used  to  say,  "That  those  things  were  the  best 
for  a  man  to  take  on  a  journey,  which  would  float  with  him 
if  he  were  shipwrecked."  He  was  once  reproached  for  being 
intimate  with  wicked  men,  and  said,  "Physicians  also  live 
with  those  who  are  sick ;  and  yet  they  do  not  catch  fevers." 
He  used  to  say,  "that  it  was  an  absurd  thing  to  clean  a  corn- 
field of  tares,  and  in  war  to  get  rid  of  bad  soldiers,  and  yet  not 
to  rid  one's  self  in  a  city  of  the  wicked  citizens."  "When  he 
was  asked  what  advantage  he  had  ever  derived  from  philoso- 
phy, he  replied,  "  The  advantage  of  being  able  to  converse 
with  myself."  At  a  drinking  party,  a  man  once  said  to  him, 
"  Give  us  a  song,"  and  he  replied,  "  Do  you  play  us  a  tune  on 
the  flute."  When  Diogenes  asked  him  for  a  tunic,  he  bade 
him  fold  his  cloak.  He  was  asked  on  one  occasion  what 
learning  was  the  most  necessary,  and  he  replied,  "  To  unlearn 
one's  bad  habits."  And  he  used  to  exhort  those  who  found 
themselves  ill  spoken  of,  to  endure  it  more  than  they  would 
any  one's  throwing  stones  at  them.  He  used  to  laugh  at  Plato 
as  conceited ;  accordingly,  once  when  there  was  a  fine  proces- 
sion, seeing  a  horse  neighing,  Jie  said  to  Plato,  "I  think  you 
too  would  be  a  very  frisky  horse :"  and  he  said  this  all  the 
more,  because  Plato  kept  continually  praising  the  horse.  At 
another  time,  he  had  gone  to  see  him  when  he  was  ill,  and 
when  he  saw  there  a  dish  in  which  Plato  had  been  sick,  he 
said,  "  I  see  your  bile  there,  but  I  do  not  see  your  conceit." 


ANTISTHENES.  31 

He  used  to  advise  the  Athenians  to  pass  a  vote  that  asses 
were  horses;  and,  as  they  thought  that  irrational,  he  said, 
"  Why,  those  whom  you  make  generals  have  never  learnt  to 
be  really  generals,  they  have  only  been  voted  such." 

A  man  said  to  him  one  day,  "Many  people  praise  you." 
"Why,  what  evil,"  said  he,  "have  I  done?"  When  he 
turned  the  rent  in  his  cloak  outside,  Socrates  seeing  it,  said  to 
him,  "  I  see  your  vanity  through  the  hole  in  your  cloak."  On 
another  occasion,  the  question  was  put  to  him  by  some  one,  as 
Phanias  relates,  in  his  treatise  on  the  Philosophers  of  the  So- 
cratic  school,  what  a  man  could  do  to  show  himself  an 
honorable  and  a  virtuous  man ;  and  he  replied,  "  If  you  attend 
to  those  who  understand  the  subject,  and  learn  from  them  that 
you  ought  to  shun  the  bad  habits  which  you  have."  Some  one 
was  praising  luxury  in  his  hearing,  and  he  said,  "  May  the 
children  of  my  enemies  be  luxurious."  Seeing  a  young  man 
place  himself  in  a  carefully  studied  attitude  before  a  modeller, 
he  said,  "  Tell  me,  if  the  brass  could  speak,  on  what  would  it 
pride  itself?"  And  when  the  young  man  replied,  "  On  its 
beauty."  "Are  you  not  then,"  said  he,  "ashamed  to  rejoice 
in  the  same  thing  as  an  inanimate  piece  of  brass  ?"  A  young 
man  from  Pontus  once  promised  to  recollect  him,  if  a  vessel 
of  salt  fish  arrived ;  and  so  he  took  him  with  him,  and  also  an 
empty  bag,  and  went  to  a  woman  who  sold  meal,  and  filled 
his  sack  and  went  away  ;  and  when  the  woman  asked  him 
to  pay  for  it,  he  said,  "  The  young  man  will  pay  you,  when 
the  vessel  of  salt  fish  comes  home." 

Whenever  he  saw  a  woman  beautifully  adorned,  he  would 
go  off  to  her  house,  and  desire  her  husband  to  bring  forth  his 
horse  and  his  arms ;  and  then  if  he  had  such  things,  he  would 
give  him  leave  to  indulge  in  luxury,  for  that  he  had  the  means 
of  defending  himself;  but  if  he  had  them  not,  then  he  would 
bid  him  strip  his  wife  of  her  ornaments. 

And  the  doctrines  he  adopted  were  these.  He  used  to  insist, 
that  virtue  was  a  thing  which  might  be  taught;  also,  that  the 


32  ANTISTHENES. 

nobly  born  and  virtuously  disposed,  were  the  same  people ;  for 
that  virtue  was  of  itself  sufficient  for  happiness,  and  was  in 
need  of  nothing,  except  the  strength  of  Socrates.  He  also 
looked  upon  virtue  as  a  species  of  work,  not  wanting  many 
arguments,  or  much  instruction  ;  and  he  taught  that  the  wise 
man  was  sufficient  for  himself;  for  that  everything  that  be- 
longed to  any  one  else  belonged  to  him.  He  considered  ob- 
scurity of  fame  a  good  thing,  and  equally  good  with  labor. 
And  he  used  to  say  that  the  wise  man  would  regulate  his  con- 
duct as  a  citizen,  not  according  to  the  established  laws  of  the 
state,  but  according  to  the  law  of  virtue.  And  that  he  would 
marry  for  the  sake  of  having  children,  selecting  the  most  beau- 
tiful woman  for  his  wife.  And  that  he  would  love  her ;  for 
that  the  wise  man  alone  knew  what  objects  deserved  love. 

Diocles  also  attributes  the  following  apophthegms  to  him. 
"  To  the  wise  man,  nothing  is  strange  and  nothing  remote.  The 
virtuous  man  is  worthy  to  be  loved.  Good  men  are  friends.  It 
is  right  to  make  the  brave  and  just  one's  allies.  Virtue  is  a 
weapon  of  which  a  man  cannot  be  deprived.  It  is  better  to 
fight  with  a  few  good  men  against  all  the  wicked,  than  with 
many  wicked  men  against  a  few  good  men.  One  should  at- 
tend to  one's  enemies,  for  they  are  the  first  persons  to  detect 
one's  errors.  One  should  consider  a  just  man  as  of  more  value 
than  a  relation.  Virtue  is  the  same  in  a  man  as  in  a  woman. 
"What  is  good  is  honorable,  and  what  is  bad  is  disgraceful. 
Think  everything  that  is  wicked,  foreign.  Prudence  is  the 
safest  fortification  ;  for  it  can  neither  fall  to  pieces  nor  be  be- 
trayed. One  must  prepare  one's  self  a  fortress  in  one's  own 
impregnable  thoughts." 

He  also  said,  "As  rust  consumes  iron  so  doth  envy  the 
heart  ^  man." 

"  The  harmony  of  brethren  is  a  stronger  defence  than  a 
•Mfaii  of  brass." 

"  The  man  who  is  afraid  of  another,  whatever  he  may 
MMiik  of  himself,  is  a  slave." 


ANTISTHENES.  33 

"We  ought  to  aim  at  such  pleasures  as  fol'.ow  labor,  not  at 
those  which  go  before  labor." 

"A  feast  is  not  pleasant  without  comp;^/>  nor  ricnes  with- 
out virtue." 

"  Him  that  con tradicteth,  we  must  not  again  contradict,  but  in- 
struct, for  a  mad  man  is  not  cured  by  another s  becoming  mad." 

To  some  who  applauded  a  piper  he  said,  "  He  is  a  bad  man 
or  else  he  would  never  have  been  so  good  a  piper.'' 

Being  asked  what  a  feast  was,  he  said,  "  The  occasion  of  sur- 
feits." 

He  used  to  lecture  in  the  Gymnasium,  called  Cynosarges, 
not  far  from  the  gates  ;  and  some  people  say  that  it  is  from 
that  place  that  the  sect  got  the  name  of  Cynics.  And  he  him- 
self was  called  Haplocyon  (downright  dog.) 

He  was  the  first  person  to  set  the  fashion  of  doubling  his 
cloak,  as  Diocles  says,  and  he  wore  no  other  garment.  And  he 
used  to  carry  a  stick  and  a  wallet ;  but  ]STeanthes  says  that  he 
was  the  first  person  who  wore  a  cloak  without  folding  it.  But 
Sosicrates,  in  the  third  book  of  his  Successions,  says  that  Diod- 
orus,  of  Aspendos,  let  his  beard  grow,  and  used  to  carry  a 
stick  and  a  wallet. 

He  is  the  only  one  of  all  the  pupils  of  Socrates,  whom  Theo- 
pornpus  praises  and  speaks  of  as  clever,  and  able  to  persuade 
whomsoever  he  pleased  by  the  sweetness  of  his  conversation. 
And  this  is  plain,  both  from  his  own  writings,  and  from  the 
Banquet  of  Xenophon.  He  appears  to  have  been  the  founder 
of  the  more  manly  Stoic  school. 

He  was  the  original  cause  of  the  apathy  of  Diogenes,  the 
temperance  of  Crates  and  the  patience  of  Zeno,  having  him- 
self, as  it  were,  lain  the  foundations  of  the  city  which  they 
afterwards  built.  And  Xenophon  says  that  in  his  conversa- 
tion and  society,  he  was  the  most  delightful  of  men,  and  in 
every  respect  the  most  temperate. 

So  numerous  were  the  books  of  Antisthenes,  and  so  various 
their  subjects,  that  Timon  called  him  a  universal  chatterer. 


34  APOLLONIUS. 


APOLLONIUS. 

APOLLONITTS  TYANEUS  was  follower  of  the  Pythagoric  doc- 
trine and  discipline.  The  principal  circumstances  of  his  life, 
as  far  as  credit  can  be  given  to  his  fabulous  biographer,  Philos- 
tratus,  are  as  follows : 

Apollonius,  of  an  ancient  and  wealthy  family  in  Tyana,  a 
city  of  Capadocia,  was  born  about  the  commencement  of  the 
Christian  era.  At  fourteen  years  of  age  his  father  took  him 
to  Tarsus,  to  be  instructed  by  Euthydemus,  a  rhetorician  ;  but 
he  soon  became  dissatisfied  with  the  luxury  and  indolence  of 
the  citizens,  and  obtained  permission  from  his  father  to  re- 
move, with  his  preceptor,  to  JEgas,  a  neighboring  town, 
where  was  a  temple  of  Esculapius.  Here  he  conversed  with 
Platonists,  Stoics,  Peripatetics,  and  Epicureans,  and  became 
acquainted  with  their  doctrines.  But  finding  the  Pythagorean 
tenets  and  discipline  more  consonant  to  his  own  views  and 
temper,  than  those  of  any  other  sect,  he  made  choice  of  Eux- 
enus  for  his  preceptor  in  philosophy ;  a  man  who  indeed 
lodged  his  master's  precepts  in  his  memory,  but  paid  little  re- 
gard to  them  in  practice.  Apollonius,  however,  was  not  to 
be  diverted  from  the  strictness  of  the  Pythagorean  discipline 
even  by  the  example  of  his  preceptor.  He  refrained  from 
animal  food,  and  lived  entirely  upon  fruits  and  herbs.  He  wore 
no  article  of  clothing  made  of  the  skins  of  animals.  He  went 
bare-footed  and  suffered  his  hair  to  grow  to  its  full  length. 
He  spent  his  time  chiefly  in  the  temple  of  Esculapius  among 
the  priests,  by  whom  he  was  greatly  admired. 

After  having  acquired  reputation  at  ./Egas,  Apollonius  de- 
termined to  qualify  himself  for  the  office  of  a  preceptor  in  phi- 
losophy by  passing  through  the  Pythagorean  discipline  of 
silence.  Accordingly,  he  remained  five  years  without  once 
exercising  the  faculty  of  speech.  During  this  time  he  chiefly 
resided  in  Pamphylia  and  Oilicia.  When  his  term  of  silence 


APOLLONIUS.  35 

expired,  he  visited  Antioch,  Ephesus,  and  other  cities,  declin- 
ing the  society  of  the  rude  and  illiterate,  and  conversing  chiefly 
with  the  priests.  At  sun-rising  he  performed  certain  religious 
rites,  which  he  disclosed  only  to  those  who  had  passed 
through  the  discipline  of  silence.  He  spent  the  morning  in 
instructing  his  disciples,  whom  he  encouraged  to  ask  whatever 
questions  they  pleased.  At  noon  he  held  a  public  assembly 
for  popular  discourse.  His  style  was  neither  turgid  nor 
abstruse,  but  truly  Attic.  Avoiding  all  prolixity,  and  every 
ironical  mode  of  speech,  he  issued  forth  his  dogmas  with  oracu- 
lar authority,  saying,  on  every  occasion,  This  I  know,  or,  Such 
is  my  judgment ;  herein  imitating  the  manner  of  Pythagoras. 
Being  asked  why,  instead  of  dogmatically  asserting  his  tenets, 
he  did  not  still  continue  to  inquire;  his  answer  was:  "I  have 
sought  for  truth,  when  I  was  young ;  it  becomes  me  now  no 
longer  to  seek,  but  to  teach  what  I  have  found."  Apollonius, 
that  he  might  still  more  perfectly  resemble  Pythagoras,  deter- 
mined to  travel  through  distant  nations.  He  proposed  his 
design  to  his  disciples,  who  were  seven  in  number,  but  they 
refused  to  accompany  him.  He  therefore  entered  upon  his 
expedition,  attended  only  by  two  servants.  At  Xinus  he  took 
as  his  associate  Damis,  an  inhabitant  of  that  city,  to  whom  he 
boasted  that  he  was  skilled  in  all  languages,  thcmgh  he  had 
never  learned  them,  and  that  he  even  understood  the  language 
of  beasts  and  birds.  The  ignorant  Assyrian  worshipped  him 
as  a  god ;  and,  resigning  himself  implicitly  to  his  direction, 
accompanied  him  wherever  he  went. 

At  Babylon,  Apollonius  conversed  with  the  Magi,  receiving 
from  them  much  instruction,  and  communicating  to  them 
many  things  in  return ;  but  to  these  conferences  Damis  was 
not  admitted.  In  his  visit  to  India,  he  was  admitted  to  an 
interview  with  the  king,  Phraortes,  and  was  introduced  by 
him  to  larchus,  the  eldest  of  the  Indian  gymnosophists.  Re- 
turning to  Babylon,  he  passed  from  that  city  to  Ionia,  where 
he  visited  Ephesus,  and  several  other  places,  teaching  the  doc- 


36  APOLLONIUS. 

trine,  and  reoommending  the  discipline,  of  Pythagoras.  On 
his  way  to  Greece,  he  conversed  with  the  priests  of  Orpheus 
at  his  temple  in  Lesbos.  Arriving  at  Athens  at  the  time  when 
the  sacred  mysteries  were  performing,  Apollonius  offered  him- 
self for  initiation ;  but  the  priest  refused  him,  saying,  that  it 
was  not  .awful  to  initiate  an  enchanter.  He  discoursed  with 
the  Athenians  concerning  sacrifices,  and  exhorted  them  to 
adopt  a  more  frugal  manner  of  living. 

After  passing  throughi  some  other  Grecian  cities  and  the 
island  of  Crete,  Apollonius  went  into  Italy,  with  the  design 
of  visiting  Rome.  Just  before  this  time,  Nero,  probably 
either  because  lie  had  been  deceived  by  the  pretensions  of  the 
magicians,  or  was  apprehensive  of  some  danger  from  their 
arts,  gave  orders  that  all  those  who  practised  magic  should  be 
banished  from  the  city.  The  friends  of  Apollonius  apprized 
him  of  the  hazard  which  was  likely,  at  this  juncture,  to  attend 
the  purposed  visit  to  Rome  ;  and  the  alarm  was  so  great,  that, 
out  of  thirty-four  persons  who  were  his  stated  companions, 
only  eight  chose  to  accompany  him  thither.  He  nevertheless 
persevered  in  his  resolution,  and  under  the  protection  of  the 
sacred  habit  obtained  admission  into  the  city.  The  next 
day  he  was  conducted  to  the  Consul  Telesinus,  who  was  in- 
clined to  favor  philosophers  of  every  class,  and  obtained  from 
him  permission  to  visit  the  temples,  and  converse  with  the 
priests. 

From  Rome  Apollonius  travelled  westward  to  Spain.  Here 
he  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  incite  the  procurator  of 
the  province  of  Baetica  to  a  conspiracy  against  Nero.  After 
the  death  of  that  tyrant  he  returned  to  Italy,  on  his  way  to 
Greece ;  whence  he  proceeded  to  Egypt,  where  Vespasian  was 
making  use  of  every  expedient  to  establish  his  power.  That 
prince  easily  perceived  that  nothing  would  give  him  greater 
credit  with  the  Egyptian  populace  than  to  have  his  cause 
espoused  by  one  who  was  esteemed  a  favored  minister  of  the 
gods,  and  therefore  did  not  fail  to  show  him  every  kind  of  at- 


APOLLONIUS.  37 

tention  and  respect.  The  philosopher,  in  return,  adapted  his 
measures  to  the  views  of  the  new  emperor,  and  used  all  his 
influence  among  the  people  in  support  of  Vespasian's  author- 

ity. 

Upon  the  accession  of  Domitian,  Apollonius  was  no  sooner  in- 
formed of  the  tyrannical  proceedings  of  that  eniperor,and  par- 
ticularly of  his  proscription  of  philosophers,  than  he  assisted 
in  raising  a  sedition  against  him,  and  in  favor  of  Nerva,  among 
the  Egyptians ;  so  that  Domitian  thought  it  necessary  to  issue 
an  order  that  he  should  be  seized,  and  brought  to  Rome.  Apol- 
lonius, being  informed  of  the  order,  set  out  immediately,  of 
his  own  accord,  for  that  city.  Upon  his  arrival  he  was 
brought  to  trial;  but  his  judge,  the  pretor  yElian,  who  had 
formerly  known  him  in  Egypt,  was  desirous  to  favor  him,  and 
so  conducted  the  process  that  it  terminated  in  his  acquittal. 

Apollonius  now  passed  over  into  Greece,  and  visited  the 
temple  of  Jupiter  at  Olympia,  the  cave  of  Trophonius  in  Arca- 
dia, and  other  celebrated  seats  of  religion.  "Wherever  he  went 
he  gained  new  followers.  At  length  he  settled  at  Ephesus, 
and  there  formed  a  school  in  some  degree  similar  to  the  an- 
cient ^Pythagorean  college;  but  with  this  material  difference, 
that  in  the  school  of  Apollonius  the  door  of  wisdom  was  open 
to  all,  and  every  one  was  permitted  to  speak  and  inquire 
freely. 

Concerning  the  fate  of  Apollonius,  after  he  settled  at  Ephe- 
sus, nothing  certain  is  related.  The  time,  the  place,  and  the 
manner  of  his  death  are  unknown.  It  is  probable  that  he 
lived  to  an  extreme  old  age,  and  died  in  the  reign  of  Nerva. 
Damis,  who  attached  himself  to  this  philosopher  at  Babylon, 
accompanied  him  in  his  subsequent  travels,  and  after  his 
death  became  his  memorialist.  Philostratus  has  loaded  his 
account  of  the  life  of  this  extraordinary  man  with  so  many 
marvellous  tales,  that  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  determine 
what  degree  of  credit  is  due  to  his  narrative.  He  relates,  for 
example,  that  while  the  mother  of  Apollonius  was  pregnant, 

4. 


38  APOLLONIUS. 

the  Egyptian  divinity  Proteus  appeared  to  her,  and  told  her 
that  the  child  she  should  bring  forth  was  a  god ;  that  his 
birth  was  attended  with  a  celestial  light ;  that  in  the  Escula- 
pean  temple  at  JSgas  he  predicted  future  events ;  that  at  the 
tomb  of  Achilles  he  had  a  conference  with  the  ghost  of  that 
hero ;  and  that  whilst  he  was  publicly  discoursing  at  Ephesus, 
he  suddenly  paused,  as  if  struck  with  a  panic,  and  then  cried 
out,  "Slay  the  tyrant,"  at  the  very  instant  when  Domitian 
was  cut  off  at  Rome.  If  to  these  tales  we  add  the  accounts 
which  Philostratus  gives  of  the  efficacy  of  the  mere  presence 
of  Apollonius,  without  the  utterance  of  a  single  word,  in  quell- 
ing popular  tumults;  of  the  chains  of  Prometheus,  which 
Apollonius  saw  upon  Mount  Caucasus ;  of  speaking  trees,  of 
pigmies,  phoenixes,  satyrs,  and  dragons,  which  he  met  with 
in  his  eastern  tour ;  and  of  other  things  equally  wonderful ;  it 
will  be  impossible  to  hesitate  in  ascribing  the  marvellous 
parts,  at  least,  of  Philostratus's  narrative  to  his  ingenuity,  or 
credulity. 

Different  opinions  have  been  entertained  concerning  the 
character  of  Apollonius.  Some  have  supposed  the  whole 
series  of  extraordinary  events  related  concerning  him  to  have 
been  the  mere  invention  of  Philostratus  and  others  for  the 
purpose  of  obstructing  the  progress  of  Christianity,  and  pro- 
viding a  temporary  prop  for  the  falling  edifice  of  paganism. 
Others,  remarking  that  Apollonius  had  acquired  a  high  degree 
of  celebrity  long  before  the  time  of  his  biographer,  refer  the 
origin  of  these  tales  to  the  philosopher  himself;  but  with  re- 
spect to  the  manner  which  this  is  to  be  done  they  are  not 
agreed.  Some  apprehend  that  he  was  intimately  acquainted 
with  nature,  and  deeply  skilled  in  medicinal  arts,  and  that  he 
applied  his  knowledge  and  skill  to  the  purposes  of  imposture, 
that  he  might  pass  among  a  credulous  multitude  for  something 
more  than  human  ;  while  others  imagine  that  he  accomplished 
his  fraudulent  designs  by  means  of  a  real  intercourse  with 
evil  spirits.  The  truth  probably  is,  that  Apollonius  was  one 


APOLLO  N I U  8  .  39 

of  those  impostors  who  profess  to  practice  magic  arts,  and 
perform  other  wonders,  for  the  sake  of  acquiring  fame,  influ- 
ence, and  profit,  among  the  vulgar.  In  this  light,  even  ac- 
cording to  his  own  biographer,  he  was  regarded  by  his  con- 
temporaries, particularly  by  the  priests  of  the  Eleusinian  and 
Trophonian  mysteries,  and  by  Euphrates,  an  Alexandrian  philos- 
opher. Lucian  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Trajan,  and  Apuleius, 
who  flourished  under  Antoninus  Pius,  rank  him  among  the  most 
celebrated  magicians.  Origen,  who  had  seen  a  life  of  Apollo- 
nius,  now  lost,  which  was  written  by  Maragenes,  prior  to  that 
of  Philostratus,  writes  thus: — "Concerning  magic,  we  shall 
only  say,  that  whoever  is  desirous  of  knowing  whether  philos- 
ophers are  to  be  imposed  upon  by  this  art,  let  him  read  the 
memoirs  of  Apollonius,  written  by  Maragenes,  who,  though  a 
philosopher,  and  not  a  Christian,  says,  that  philosophers  of  no 
mean  repute  were  deceived  by  the  magical  arts  of  Apollonius, 
and  visited  him  as  a  person  capable  of  predicting  future 
events."  Eusebius,  in  his  answer  to  Hierocles,  who  wrote  a 
treatise,  in  which  he  drew  a  comparison  between  Jesus 
Christ  and  Apollonius  Tyaneus,  speaks  of  the  latter  as  a  man 
who  was  eminently  skilled  in  every  kind  of  human  wisdom, 
but  who  affected  powers  beyond  the  reach  of  philosophy,  and 
assumed  the  Pythagorean  manner  of  living  as  a  mask  for  his 
impostures.  The  narrative  of  his  life,  by  Philostratus,  though 
doubtless  abounding  with  fictions,  serves  at  least  to  confirm 
this  opinion. 

How  successfully  Apollonius  practised  the  arts  of  imposture, 
sufficiently  appears  from  the  events  which  followed.  The 
dominion  over  the  minds  of  men,  which  he  found  means  to 
establish  during  his  life,  remained  and  increased  after  his 
death,  so  that  he  long  continued  to  be  ranked  among  the  divin- 
ities. The  inhabitants  of  Tyana,  proud  of  the  honor  of  call- 
ing him  their  fellow-citizen,  dedicated  a  temple  to  his  name  ; 
and  the  same  privileges  were  granted  to  them  as  had  usually 
been  conferred  upon  those  cities  where  temples  were  raised, 


40  ARCESILAUS. 

and  sacred  rites  performed,  in  honor  of  the  emperors.  Aure- 
lian,  out  of  respect  to  his  memory,  showed  the  Tyaneans 
peculiar  favor.  Adrian  took  great  pains  to  collect  his  writ- 
ings, and  preserve  them  in  his  library :  Caracalla  dedicated  a 
temple  to  him,  as  to  a  divinity  among  men ;  and  Alexander 
Severus,  in  his  domestic  temple,  kept  the  image  of  Apollo- 
nius,  with  those  of  Abraham,  Orpheus,  and  Christ,  and  paid 
them  divine  honors.  The  common  people,  in  the  meantime, 
ranked  Apollonius  in  the  number  of  deified  men,  and  made 
use  of  his  name  in  incantations ;  and  even  among  the  philoso- 
phers of  the  Eclectic  sect  he  was  regarded  as  a  being  of  a 
superior  order,  who  partook  of  a  middle  nature  between  gods 
and  men. 


ARCESILAUS. 

AECESILAUS  was  the  son  of  Seuthes  or  Scythes,  and  a  native 
of  Pitaue  in  ^Eolia. 

He  was  the  original  founder  of  the  Middle  Academy,  and 
the  first  man  who  professed  to  suspend  the  declaration  of  his 
judgment,  because  of  the  contrarieties  of  the  reasons  alleged 
on  either  side.  He  was  likewise  the  first  who  attempted  to 
argue  on  both  sides  of  a  question,  and  who  also  made  the 
method  of  discussion,  which  had  been  handed  down  by  Plato, 
by  means  of  question  and  answer,  more  contentious  than  be- 
fore. 

He  became  a  pupil  of  Xanthus  the  musician,  and  after  that 
attended  the  lectures  of  Theophrastus,  and  subsequently  came 
over  to  the  Academy  to  Grantor.  For  Maereas  his  brother, 
urged  him  to  apply  himself  to  rhetoric  ;  but  he  himself  had  a 
preference  for  philosophy,  and  when  he  became  much  at- 
tached to  him  Grantor  asked  him,  quoting  a  line  out  of  the 
Andromeda  of  Euripides  : — 


ARCESILAUS.  41 

O  virgin,  if  I  save  you,  will  you  thank  me  ? 
And  he  replied  by  quoting  the  next  line  to  it : — 

O  take  me  to  you,  stranger,  as  your  slave, 
Or  wife,  or  what  you  please. 

And  ever  after  that  they  became  very  intimate,  so  that  they 
say  Theophrastus  was  much  annoyed,  and  said,  "  That  a  most 
ingenious  and  well-disposed  young  man  had  deserted  his 
school." 

For  he  was  not  only  very  impressive  in  his  discourse,  and 
displayed  a  great  deal  of  learning  in  it,  hut  he  also  tried  his 
hand  at  poetry,  and  there  is  extant  an  epigram  which  is  at- 
tributed to  him,  addressed  to  Attains,  which  is  a  follows : — 

Pergamus  is  not  famed  for  arms  alone, 

But  often  hears  its  praise  resound 
For  its  fine  horses,  at  the  holy  Pisa. 

Yet,  if  a  mortal  may  declare, 
Its  fate  as  hidden  in  the  breast  of  Jove, 

It  will  be  famous  for  its  woes. 

There  is  another  addressed  to  Mendorus  the  son  Eudamus, 
who  was  attached  to  one  of  his  fellow  pupils  : — 

Phrygia  is  a  distant  land,  and  so 

Is  sacred  Thyatire,  and  Cadanade, 

Your  country  Menodorus.     But  from  all, 

As  the  unvaried  song  of  bards  relates, 

An  equal  road  lies  to  Acheron, 

That  dark  unmentioned  river;  so  you  lie 

Here  far  from  home  ;  and  here  Eudamus  raises 

This  tomb  above  your  bones,  for  he  did  love  you, 

Though  you  were  poor,  with  an  undying  love. 

But  he  admired  Homer  above  all  poets,  and  always  used  to 
read  a  portion  of  his  works  before  going  to  sleep;  and  in  the 
morning  he  would  say  that  he  was  going  to  the  object  of  his 
love,  when  he  was  going  to  read  him.  He  said,  too,  that  Pin- 
dar was  a  wonderful  man  for  filling  the  voice,  and  pouring 
forth  an  abundant  variety  of  words  and  expressions.  He  also, 

when  he  was  a  young  man,  wrote  a  criticism  on  Ion. 

4.* 


42  ARCESILAUS. 

And  he  was  a  pupil  likewise  of  Hipponicus,  the  geometri- 
can,  whom  he  used  to  ridicule  on  other  points  as  being  lazy  and 
gaping;  but  he  admitted  that  in  his  own  profession  he  was 
clear  sighted  enough,  and  said  that  geometry  had  flown  into 
his  mouth  while  he  was  yawning.  And  when  he  went  out  of 
his  mind,  he  took  him  to  his  own  house,  and  took  care  of  him 
till  he  recovered  his  senses. 

And  when  Orates  died,  he  succeeded  him  in  the  presidency 
of  his  schools,  a  man  of  the  name  of  Socrates  willingly  yield- 
ing to  him. 

And  as  he  suspended  his  judgment  on  every  point,  he 
never,  as  it  is  said,  wrote  one  single  book.  But  others  say 
that  he  was  once  detected  correcting  some  passages  in  a  work 
of  his;  and  some  assert  that  he  published  it,  while  others  deny 
it,  and  affirm  that  he  threw  it  into  the  fire. 

He  was  exceedingly  fond  of  employing  axioms,  very  concise 
in  his  diction,  and  when  speaking  he  laid  an  emphasis  on  each 
separate  word. 

He  was  also  very  fond  of  attacking  others,  and  very  free 
spoken,  on  which  account  Timon  in  another  passage  speaks 
of  him  thus : — 

You'll  not  escape  all  notice  while  you  thus 
Attack  the  young  man  with  your  biting  sarcasm. 

Once,  when  a  }Toung  man  was  arguing  against  him  with 
more  boldness  than  usual,  lie  said,  "  Will  no  one  stop  his 
mouth  with  the  knout?"*  But  to  a  man  who  lay  under  the 
general  imputation  of  low  debauchery,  and  who  argued  with 
him  that  one  thing  was  not  greater  than  another,  he  asked 
him  whether  a  cup  holding  two  pints  was  not  larger  than  one 
which  held  only  one.  There  was  a  certain  Chian  named 
Ilemon,  exceedingly  ugly,  but  who  fancied  himself  good  look- 
ing, and  always  went  about  in  fine  clothes  :  this  man  asked 

"  Perhaps  there  is  a  pun  here  ;  astragalos  means  not  only  a  knout  composed 
of  pmall  bones  strung  together,  but  also  a  die. 


ARCESILAUS.  43 

him  one  day,  "  If  he  thought  that  a  wise  man  could  feel  at- 
tachment to  him ;"  "  Why  should  he  not,"  said  he,  "  when 
they  love  even  those  who  are  less  handsome  than  you,  and 
not  so  well-dressed  either?"  and  when  the  man,  though  one 
of  the  vilest  characters  possible,  said  to  Arcesilaus  as  if  he 
were  addressing  a  very  rigid  man : — 

O,  noble  man,  may  I  a  question  put, 
Or  must  I  hold  my  tongue  ? 

Arcesilaus  replied: — 

O  wretched  woman,  why  do  you  thus  roughen 
Your  voice,  not  speaking  in  your  usual  manner  ? 

And  once,  when  plagued  by  a  chattering  fellow  of  low  ex- 
traction, he  said : — • 

The  sons  of  slaves  are  always  talking  vilely. 

Another  time,  when  a  talkative  man  was  giving  utterance 
to  a  great  deal  of  nonsense,  he  said,  that  "He  had  not  had  a 
nurse  who  was  severe  enough."  And  to  some  people  he  never 
gave  any  answer  at  all.  On  one  occasion  a  usurer  who  made 
pretence  to  some  learning,  said  in  his  hearing  that  he  did  not 
know  something  or  other,  on  which  he  rejoined: — 

For  often  times  the  passing  winds  do  fill 

The  female  bird,  except  when  big  with  young.* 

And  the  lines  come  out  of  the  ./Enomaus  of  Sophocles.  He 
once  reminded  a  certain  dialetician,  a  pupil  of  Aleximes,  who 
was  unable  to  explain  correctly  some  saying  of  his  master,  of 
what  had  been  done  by  Philoxenus  to  some  brick-makers. 
For  when  they  were  singing  some  of  his  songs  very  badly  he 
came  upon  them,  and  trampled  their  bricks  under  foot,  say- 
ing, "  As  you  spoil  my  works  so  will  I  spoil  yours." 

And  he  used  to  be  very  indignant  with  those  who  neglected 
proper  opportunities  of  applying  themselves  to  learning ;  and 
he  had  a  peculiar  habit,  while  conversing,  of  using  the  ex- 

*  There  is  a  pun  here  which  is  untranslateable.  The  Greek  word  meaning 
usury,  and  also  offspring  or  delivery. 


44  ARCESILA  US. 

pression,  UI  think,"  and  uSo  and  so,"  naming  the  per*  ., 
"will  not  ag%ree  to  this."  And  this  was  imitated  by  several 
of  his  pupils,  who  copied  also  his  style  of  expression  and  every- 
thing about  him.  He  was  a  man  very  ready  at  inventing 
new  words,  ind  very  quick  at  meeting  objections,  and  at 
bringing  round  the  conversation  to  the  subject  before  him, 
and  at  adapting  it  to  every  occasion,  and  he  was  the  most 
convincing  speaker  that  could  be  found,  on  which  account 
numbers  of  people  flocked  to  his  school,  in  spite  of  being  some- 
what alarmed  at  his  severity,  which  however  they  bore  with 
complacency  for  he  was  a  very  kind  man,  and  one  who  in- 
spired his  hearers  with  abundant  hope,  and  in  his  manner  of 
life  he  was  very  affable  and  liberal,  always  ready  to  do  any 
one  a  service  without  any  parade,  and  shrinking  from  any  ex- 
pression of  gratitude  on  the  part  of  those  whom  he  had 
obliged.  Accordingly  once,  when  he  had  gone  to  visit  Ctesi- 
bius  who  was  ill,  seeing  him  in  great  distress  from  want,  he 
secretly  slipped  his  purse  under  his  pillow  ;  and  when  Ctesi- 
bius  found  it,  "  This,"  said  he  "  is  the  amusement  of  Arcest- 
laus."  And  at  another  time  he  sent  him  a  thousand  drachmas. 
He  it  was  also  who  introduced  Archias  the  Arcadian  to  Eu- 
menes,  and  who  procured  him  many  favors  from  him. 

And  being  a  very  liberal  man  and  utterly  regardless  of 
money,  he  made  the  most  splendid  display  of  silver  plate, 
and  in  his  exhibition  of  gold  plate  he  vied  with  that  of  Arche- 
crates  and  Callecrates;  and  he  was  constantly  assisting  and 
contributing  to  the  wants  of  others  with  money ;  and  once, 
when  some  one  had  borrowed  from  him  some  articles  of  silver 
plate  to  help  him  entertain  his  friends,  and  did  not  offer  to 
return  them,  he  never  asked  for  them  back  or  reclaimed 
them  ;  but  some  say  that  he  lent  them  with  the  purpose  that 
they  should  be  kept,  and  that  when  the  man  returned  them, 
he  made  him  a  present  of  them  as  he  was  a  poor  man.  He 
had  also  property  in  Pitana,  the  revenues  from  which  were 
transmitted  to  him  by  his  brother  Pylades. 


ARCESILAUS.  45 

Moreover,  Eumeues,  the  son  of  Philetaarus,  supplied  him 
with  many  things,  on  which  account  he  was  the  only  king  to 
whom  he  addressed  any  of  his  discourses.  And  when  many 
philosophers  paid  court  to  Antigonus  and  went  out  to  meet 
him  when  he  arrived,  he  himself  kept  quiet,  not  wishing  to 
make  his  acquaintance.  But  he  was  a  great  friend  of  Hiero- 
cles,  the  governor  of  the  harbors  of  Munychia  and  the  Piraeus ; 
and  at  festivals  he  always  paid  him  a  visit.  And  when  he 
constantly  endeavored  to  persuade  him  to  pay  his  respects  to 
Antigonus,  he  would  not;  but  though  he  accompanied  him 
as  far  as  his  gates,  he  turned  back  himself.  And  after  the  sea- 
fight  of  Antigonus,  when  many  people  went  to  him  and  wrote 
him  letters  to  comfort  him  for  his  defeat,  he  neither  went  nor 
wrote ;  but  still  in  the  service  of  his  country,  he  went  to  De- 
metrias  as  an  ambassador  to  Antigonus,  and  succeeded  in  the 
object  of  his  mission. 

And  he  spent  all  his  time  in  the  Academy,  and  avoided 
meddling  with  public  affairs,  but  at  times  he  would  spend 
some  days  in  the  Piraeus  of  Athens,  discoursing  on  philo- 
sophical subjects,  from  his  friendship  for  Hierocles,  which 
conduct  of  his  gave  rise  to  unfavorable  reports  being  raised 
against  him  by  some  people. 

Being  a  man  of  very  expensive  habits,  for  he  was  in  this 
respect  a  sort  of  second  Aristippus,  he  often  went  to  dine  with 
his  friends.  He  also  lived  openly  with  Theodote  and  Philaste, 
two  courtesans  of  Elis ;  and  to  those  who  reproached  him  for 
this  conduct,  he  used  to  quote  the  opinions  of  Aristippus.  He 
was  also  very  fond  of  the  society  of  young  men;  and  of  a  very 
affectionate  disposition,  on  which  account  Aristi,  the  Chian, 
a  Stoic  philosopher,  used  to  accuse  him  of  being  a  corrupter 
of  the  youth  of  the  city,  and  a  profligate  man.  He  is  said 
also  to  have  been  greatly  attached  to  Demetrius,  who  sailed 
to  Gyrene,  and  to  Cleochares  of  Mydea,  of  whom  he  said  to 
his  messmates,  that  he  wished  to  open  the  door  to  him  but 
that  he  prevented  him. 


4(5  ARCESILAU6. 

Demochares  the  son  of  Laches,  and  Pythocles  the  son  of 
Bugelus,  were  also  among  his  friends,  and  he  said  that  he 
humored  them  in  all  their  wishes  because  of  his  great  patience. 
And,  on  this  account,  those  people  to  whom  I  have  before 
alluded,  used  to  attack  him  and  ridicule  him  as  a  popularity 
hunter  and  vain-glorious  man.  And  they  set  upon  him  very 
violently  at  an  entertainment  given  by  Hieronymus,  the  Peri- 
patetic, when  he  invited  his  friends  on  the  "birthday  of  Alcy- 
meus,  the  sou  of  Antigonus,  on  which  occasion  Antigonus  sent 
him  a  large  sum  of  money  to  promote  the  conviviality.  On 
this  occasion,  as  he  avoided  all  discussion  during  the  continu- 
ance of  the  banquet,  when  Aridelus  proposed  to  him  a  ques- 
tion which  required  some  deliberation,  and  entreated  him  to 
discourse  upon  it,  it  is  said  that  he  replied,  "  But  this  is  more 
especially  the  business  of  philosophy,  to  know  the  proper  time 
for  everything."  With  reference  to  the  charge  that  was 
brought  against  him  of  being  a  popularity  hunter,  Tirnon 
speaks,  among  other  matters,  mentioning  it  in  the  following 

manner : — 

He  spoke  and  glided  quick  among  the  crowd, 

They  gazed  on  him  as  finches  who  behold 

An  owl  among  them.    You  then  please  the  people  1 

Alas,  poor  fool,  'tis  no  great  matter  that ; 

Why  give  yourself  such  airs  for  such  a  trifle  ? 

However,  in  all  other  respects  he  was  so  free  from  vanity,  that 
he  used  to  advise  his  pupils  to  become  the  disciples  of  other 
men  ;  and  once,  when  a  young  man  from  Chios  was  not  satis- 
fied with  his  school,  but  preferred  that  of  Hieronymus,  whom 
1  have  mentioned  before,  he  himself  took  him  and  introduced 
him  to  that  philosopher,  recommending  him  to  preserve  his 
regularity  of  conduct.  And  there  is  a  very  witty  saying  of  his 
recorded.  For  when  some  one  asked  him  once,  why  people 
left  other  schools  to  go  to  the  Epicureans,  but  no  one  left  the 
Epicureans  to  join  the  other  sects,  he  replied,  "  People  some- 
times make  eunuchs  of  men,  but  no  one  can  ever  make  a  man 
of  an  eunuch." 


ARCHYTAS.  47 

At  last,  when  lie  was  near  his  end,  he  left  all  his  property 
to  his  brother  Pylades.  He  never  married  a  wife,  and  never 
had  any  children.  He  made  three  copies  of  his  will,  and  de- 
posited one  in  Eretria  with  Amphicritus,  and  one  at  Athens 
with  some  of  his  friends,  and  the  third  he  sent  to  his  own  home 
to  Thaumasias,  one  of  his  relations,  entreating  him  to  keep  it. 

He  died,  as  Hermippus  relates,  after  having  drunk  an  excess- 
ive quantity  of  wine,  and  then  became  delirious,  when  he 
was  seventy-five  years  old ;  and  he  was  more  beloved  by  the 
Athenians  than  any  one  else  had  ever  been.  And  we  have 
written  the  following  epigram  on  him ; — 

0  wise  Arcesilaus,  why  didst  thou  drink 
So  vast  a  quantity  of  unmixed  wine, 

As  to  lose  all  your  senses,  and  then  die  ? 

1  pity  you  not  so  much  for  your  death, 
As  for  the  insult  that  you  thus  did  offer 
The  Muses,  by  your  sad  excess  in  wine. 


ARCHYTAS. 

AECHTTAS  of  Tarentum  acquired  such  celebrity  for  his 
knowledge  of  philosophy  that  many  illustrious  names  are  found 
amongst  his  disciples.  He  prudently  withheld  all  chastise- 
ment from  his  servants  and  inferiors  when  in  a  state  of 
passionate  excitement.  To  one  of  his  dependents  who  had 
offended  him,  he  said,  "  It  is  well  for  you  that  I  am  angry ; 
otherwise  I  know  not  what  you  might  expect."  He  taught 
that  virtue  should  be  pursued  for  its  own  sake  in  every  condi- 
tion of  life :  that  the  mind  is  more  injured  by  prosperity  than 
by  adversity,  and  that  there  is  no  pestilence  so  destructive  to 
human  happiness  as  pleasure. 

He  was  a  Pythagorean ;  and  he  it  was  who  saved  Plato's 
life  by  means  of  a  letter,  when  he  was  in  danger  of  being  put 
to  death  by  Dionysius. 


48  AEISTIPPUS. 

He  was  a  man  held  iu  very  general  esteem  on  account  of 
his  universal  virtue ;  and  he  was  seven  times  appointed  gene- 
ral of  his  countrymen,  when  no  one  else  had  ever  held  the 
office  for  more  than  one  year,  as  the  law  forbade  it  to  be  held 
for  a  longer  period. 

Aristoxenus  says,  that  this  Pythagorean  was  never  once  de- 
feated while  acting  as  general.  But  that  as  he  was  attacked  by 
envy,  he  once  gave  up  his  command,  and  his  army  was  imme- 
diately taken  prisoner. 

He  was  the  first  person  who  applied  mathematical  princi- 
ples to  mechanics,  and  reduced  them  to  a  system ;  and  the 
first  also  who  gave  a  methodical  impulse  to  descriptive  geom- 
etry in  seeking,  in  the  section  of  a  demicylinder  for  a  pro- 
portional mean,  which  should  enable  him  to  find  the  double 
of  a  given  cube.  He  was  also  the  first  person  who  ever  gave 
the  geometrical  measure  of  a  cube,  as  Plato  mentions  in  his 
Republic. 

He  invented  cranes  and  screws,  and  made  a  pigeon  of 
wood  that  flew,  but  when  she  once  rested  could  not  rise. 

He  said  it  is  as  hard  to  find  a  man  without  deceit,  as  a  fish 
without  bones.  Horace  states  that  he  perished  by  shipwreck. 


APvISTIPPUS. 

AEISTIPPUS  was  by  birth  a  Cyrenean,  but  he  came  to  Ath- 
ens, as  ^Eschines  says,  having  been  attracted  thither  by  the 
fame  of  Socrates. 

He,  having  professed  himself  a  Sophist,  as  Phanias,  of  Ere- 
sus,  the  Peripatetic,  informs  us,  was  the  first  of  the  pupils  of 
Socrates  who  exacted  money  from  his  pupils,  and  who  sent 
money  to  his  master.  And  once  he  sent  him  twenty  drach- 
mas, but  had  them  sent  back  again,  as  Socrates  said  that  his 


ARISTIPPUS.  49 

daemon  would  not  allow  him  to  accept  them  ;  for,  in  fact,  he 
was  indignant  at  having  them  offered  to  him. 

He  was  a  man  very  qnick  at  adapting  himself  to  every  kind 
of  place,  and  time,  and  person,  and  he  easily  supported  every 
change  of  fortune. 

/ 

Yet  Aristippus  every  dress  became, 
In  every  various  state  of  life  the  same. 

For  which  reason  he  was  in  greater  favor  with  Dionysius 
than  any  of  the  others,  as  he  always  made  the  hest  of  exist- 
ing circumstances.  For  he  enjoyed  what  was  before  him 
pleasantly,  and  he  did  not  toil  to  procure  himself  the  enjoy- 
ment of  what  was  not  present.  On  which  account  Diogenes 
used  to  call  him  the  king's  dog.  And  Timon  used  to  snarl  at 
him  as  too  luxurious,  speaking  somewhat  in  this  fashion : — 

Like  the  effeminate  mind  of  Aristippus, 

Who,  as  he  said,  by  touch  could  judge  of  falsehood. 

They  say  that  he  once  ordered  a  partridge  to  be  bought  for 
him.  at  the  price  of  fifty  drachmas,  and  when  some  one  blamed 
him,  "  And  would  not  you,"  said  he,  "  have  bought  it  if  it  had 
cost  an  obol  ?"  And  when  he  said  he  would,  "  "\Vell,"  replied 
Aristippus,  "  fifty  drachmas  are  no  more  to  me." 

Dionysius  once  bade  him  select  which  he  pleased  of  three 
beautiful  courtesans,  and  he  carried  off  all  three,  saying  that 
even  Paris  did  not  get  any  good  by  preferring  one  beauty  to 
the  rest.  However,  they  say,  that  when  he  had  carried  them 
as  far  as  the  vestibule,  he  dismissed  them  ;  so  easily  inclined 
was  he  to  select  or  to  disregard  things.  On  which  account 
Strato,  or,  as  others  will  have  it,  Plato,  said  to  him,  "  You  are 
the  only  man  to  whom  it  is  given  to  wear  both  a  whole  cloak 
and  rags."  Once  when  Dionysius  spit  at  him,  he  put  up  with 
it;  and  when  some  one  found  fault  with  him,  he  said,  "Men 
endure  being  wetted  by  the  sea  in  order  to  catch  a  tench,  and 
shall  not  I  endure  to  be  sprinkled  with  wine  to  catch  a  stur- 
geon ?" 

5 


50  ABISTIPPUS. 

Once  Diogenes,  who  was  washing  vegetables,  ridiculed  him 
as  he  passed  by,  and  said,  "If  you  had  learned  to  eat  these 
vegetables,  you  would  not  have  been  a  slave  in  the  palace  of 
a  tyrant."  But  Aristippus  replied,  "  And  you,  if  you  had 
known  how  to  behave  among  men,  would  not  have  been 
washing  vegetables."  Being  asked  once  what  advantage  he 
had  derived  from  philosophy,  he  said,  "  The  power  of  con- 
versing without  embarrassment  with  all  classes  of  men." 
When  he  was  reproached  for  living  extravagantly,  he  replied, 
"  If  extravagance  had  been  a  fault,  it  would  not  have  had  a 
place  in  the  festivals  of  the  gods."  At  another  time  he  was 
asked  what  advantage  philosophers  had  over  other  men ;  and 
he  replied,  "  If  all  the  laws  should  be  abrogated,  we  should 
still  live  in  the  same  manner  as  we  do  now."  Once,  when 
Dionysius  asked  him  why  the  philosophers  haunt  the  doors  of 
the  rich,  but  the  rich  do  not  frequent  those  of  the  philoso- 
phers, he  said,  "  Because  the  first  know  what  they  want,  but 
the  second  do  not." 

On  one  occasion  he  was  reproached  by  Plato  for  living  in  an 
expensive  way ;  and  he  replied,  "  Does  not  Dionysius  seem  to 
you  to  be  a  good  man?"  And  as  he  said  that  he  did ;  "  And 
yet,"  said  he,  "  he  lives  in  a  more  expensive  manner  than  I 
do,  so  that  there  is  no  impossibility  in  a  person's  living  both 
expensively  and  well  at  the  same  time."  He  was  asked  once 
in  what  educated  men  are  superior  to  uneducated  men;  and 
answered,  "  Just  as  broken  horses  are  superior  to  those  that 
are  unbroken."  On  another  occasion  he  was  going  into  the 
house  of  a  courtesan,  and  when  one  of  the  young  men  who 
were  with  him  blushed,  he  said,  "  It  is  not  the  going  into  such 
a  house  that  is  bad,  but  the  not  being  able  to  go  out."  Once 
a  man  proposed  a  riddle  to  Tiim,  and  said,  "  Solve  it."  "  Why, 
you  silly  fellow,"  said  Aristippus,  "  do  you  wish  me  to  loose 
what  giv.es  us  trouble,  even  while  it  is  in  bonds?"  A  saying 
of  his  was,  that  "  it  was  better  to  be  a  beggar  than  an  ignorant 
person  ;  for  that  a  beggar  only  wants  money,  but  an  ignorant 


ARISTIPPUS.  51 

person  wants  humanity."  Once  when  Tie  was  abused,  he  was 
going  away,  and  as  his  adversary  pursued  him  and  said,  "  Why 
are  you  going  away?"  "Because,"  said  he,  "you  have  a 
license  for  speaking  ill ;  but  I  have  another  for  declining  to 
hear  ill."  "When  some  one  said  that  he  always  saw  the  phi- 
losophers at  the  doors  of  the  rich  men,  he  said,  "  And  the 
physicians  also  are  always  seen  at  the  doors  of  their  patients ; 
but  still  no  one  would  choose  for  this  reason  to  be  an  invalid 
rather  than  a  physician." 

Once  it  happened,  that  when  he  was  sailing  to  Corinth,  he 
was  overtaken  by  a  violent  storm  ;  and  when  somebody  said, 
"  We  common  individuals  are  not  afraid,  but  you  philosophers 
are  behaving  like  cowards;"  he  said,  "Very  likely,  for  we 
have  not  both  of  us  the  same  kind  of  souls  at  stake."  Seeing 
a  man  who  prided  himself  on  the  variety  of  his  learning  and 
accomplishments,  he  said,  "Those  who  eat  most,  and  who 
take  the  most  exercise,  are  not  in  better  health  than  they  who 
eat  just  as  much  as  is  good  for  them ;  and  in  the  same  way  it 
is  not  those  who  know  a  great  many  things,  but  they  who 
know  what  is  useful,  who  are  valuable  men."  He  gave  ad- 
mirable advice  to  his  daughter  Aretes,  teaching  her  to  despise 
superfluity.  And  being  asked  by  some  one  in  what  respect 
his  son  would  be  better  if  he  received  a  careful  education,  he 
replied,  "  If  he  gets  no  other  good,  at  all  events,  when  he  is 
at  the  theatre,  he  will  not  be  one  stone  sitting  upon  another." 
Once,  when  some  one  brought  his  son,  to  introduce  him,  to 
be  educated,  he  demanded  five  hundred  drachmas ;  and  when 
the  father  said,  "  Why,  for  such  a  price  as  that  I  can  buy  a 
slave."  "  Buy  him  then,"  he  replied,  "  and  you  will  have  a 
pair." 

It  was  a  saying  of  his  that  he  took  money  from  his  acquaint- 
ances, not  in  order  to  use  it  himself,  but  to  make  them  aware 
in  what  they  ought  to  spend  their  money.  On  one  occasion, 
being  ^preached  for  having  employed  a  hired  advocate  in  a 


m 

th; 


cause  thai  he  had  depending:   "Why  not,"  said  he;  "when 


52  ARISTIPPUS. 

I  have  a  dinner,  I  hire  a  cook."  Once  he  was  compelled  by 
Dionysius  to  repeat  some  philosophical  sentiment ;  "  It  is  an 
absurdity,"  said  he,  "  for  you  to  learn  of  me  how  to  speak, 
and  yet  to  teach  me  when  I  ought  to  speak ;"  and  as  Dio- 
nysius was  offended  at^this,  he  placed  him  at  the  lowest  end 
of  the  table  ;  on  which  Aristippus  said,  "  You  wish  to  make 
this  place  more  respectable."  A  man  was  one  day  boasting 
of  his  skill  as  a  diver  ;  "  Are  you  not  ashamed,"  said  Aristip- 
pus, "  to  value  yourself  upon  that  which  every  dolphin  can  do 
better  ?"  On  one  occasion  he  was  asked  in  what  respect  a 
wise  man  is  superior  to  one  who  is  not  wise ;  and  his  answer 
was,  "  Send  them  both  naked  among  strangers,  and  you  will 
find  out." 

As  a  commentary  upon  this  last  saying  take  the  following. 
In  his  way  from  Corinth  to  Asia,  he  was  shipwrecked  upon  the 
island  of  Rhodes.  Accidentally  observing,  as  he  came  on  shore, 
a  geometrical  diagram  upon  the  sand,  he  said  to  his  compan- 
ions, "  Take  courage,  I  see  the  footsteps  of  men."  "When 
they  arrived  at  the  principal  town  of  the  island,  the  philos- 
opher soon  found  means  to  engage  the  attention  of  the  inhab- 
itants, and  procured  an  hospitable  reception  for  himself  and 
his  fellow-travellers  ;  a  fact  which  confirms  one  of  this  philoso- 
pher's aphorisms ;  "  If  you  ask  what  advantage  a  man  of  learn- 
ing has  above  one  who  is  illiterate,  send  them  together  among 
strangers,  and  you  will  see." 

To  a  man  who  was  boasting  of  being  able  to  drink  a  large 
quantity  without  getting  drunk  he  said,  "  A  mule  can  do  the 
same  thing." 

When  a  person  once  blamed  him  for  taking  money  from  his 
pupils,  after  having  been  himself  a  pupil  of  Socrates :  "  To  be 
sure  I  do,"  he  replied,  u  for  Socrates  too,  when  some  friends 
sent  their  corn  and  wine,  accepted  a  little,  and  sent  the  rest 
back ;  for  he  had  the  chief  men  of  the  Athenians  for  his  pur- 
veyors. But  I  have  only  Eutychides,  whom  I  have  bought 
with  money."  And  he  used  to  live  with  Lais  the  courtesan, 


ARISTIPPUS.  53 

as  Sotion  tells  us  in  the  Second  Book  of  his  Successions.  Ac- 
cordingly, when  some  one  reproached  him  on  her  account, 
he  made  answer,  "I  possess  her,  hut  I  am  not  possessed  by 
her :  since  the  "best  thing  is  to  possess  pleasures  without  being 
their  slave,  not  to  be  devoid  of  pleasures."  When  some  one 
blamed  him  for  the  expense  he  was  at  about  his  food,  he  said, 
"  Would  you  not  have  bought  those  things  yourself  if  they  had 
cost  three  obols?"  And  when  the  other  admitted  that  he 
would,  "  Then,"  said  he,  "  it  is  not  that  I  am  fond  of  pleasure, 
but  that  you  are  fond  of  money."  On  one  occasion,  when 
Simus,  the  steward  of  Dionysius,  was  showing  him  a  magni- 
ficent house,  paved  with  marble  (but  Simus  was  a  Phrygian, 
and  a  great  toper),  he  hawked  up  a  quantity  of  saliva  and  spit 
in  his  face ;  and  when  Simus  was  indignant  at  this,  he  said, 
"  I  could  not  find  a  more  suitable  place  to  spit  in." 

Charondas,  or  as  some  say,  Phsedon,  asked  him  once,  "Who 
are  the  people  who  use  perfumes  ?"  "  I  do,"  said  he, 
"wretched  man  that  I  am,  and  the  king  of  the  Persians  is  still 
more  wretched  than  I;  but,  recollect,  that  as  no  animal  is  the 
worse  for  having  a  pleasant  scent,  so  neither  is  a  man ;  but 
plague  take  those  wretches  who  abuse  our  beautiful  unguents." 
On  another  occasion,  he  was  asked  how  Socrates  died ;  and  he 
made  answer,  "  As  I  should  wish  to  die  myself."  When  Poly- 
xenus,  the  Sophist,  came  to  his  house  and  beheld  his  women, 
and  the  costly  preparation  that  was  made  for  dinner,  and  then 
blamed  him  for  all  this  luxury,  Aristippus  after  awhile  said, 
"Can  you  stay  with  me  to  day?"  and  when  Polyxenus  con- 
sented, "  Why  then,"  said  he,  "  did  you  blame  me?  it  seems 
that  you  blame  not  the  luxury,  but  the  expense  of  it."  When 
his  servant  was  once  carrying  some  money  along  the  road, 
and  was  oppressed  by  the  weight  of  it  (as  Bion  relates  in  his 
Dissertations),  he  said  to  him,  "Drop  what  is  beyond  your 
strength,  and  only  carry  what  you  can."  Once  he  was  at  sea, 
and  seeing  a  pirate  vessel  at  a  distance,  he  began  to  count  his 
money ;  and  then  he  let  it  drop  into  the  sea,  as  if  uninten- 

5* 


54  ARISTIPPUS. 

tionally,  and  began  to  bewail  his  loss ;  but  others  say  that  he 
said  besides,  that  it  was  better  for  the  money  to  be  lost  for  the 
sake  of  Aristippus,  than  Aristippus  for  the  sake  of  his  money. 
Ou  one  occasion,  when  Dionysius  asked  him  why  he  had 
come,  he  said,  to  give  others  a  share  of  what  he  had,  and  to 
receive  a  share  of  what  he  had  not ;  but  some  report  that  his 
answer  was,  "  When  I  wanted  wisdom,  I  went  to  Socrates ; 
but  now  that  I  want  money,  I  have  come  to  you."  He  found 
fault  with  men,  because  when  they  are  at  sales,  they  examine 
the  articles  offered  very  carefully,  but  yet  they  approve  of 
men's  lives  without  any  examination.  Though  some  attribute 
this  speech  to  Diogenes.  They  say  that  once  at  a  banquet, 
Dionysius  desired  all  the  guests  to  dance  in  purple  garments ; 
but  Plato  refused,  saying : — 

"  I  could  not  wear  a  woman's  robe,  when  I 
Was  born  a  man,  and  of  a  manly  race." 

But  Aristippus  took  the  garment,  and  when  he  was  about 
to  dance,  he  said  very  wittily : — 

"  She  who  is  chaste,  will  not  corrupted  be 
By  Bacchanalian  revels." 

He  was  once  asking  a  favor  of  Dionysius  for  a  friend,  and 
when  he  could  not  prevail,  he  fell  at  his  feet ;  and  when  some 
one  reproached  him  for  such  conduct,  he  said,  "  It  is  not  I  who 
am  to  blame,  but  Dionysius  who  has  his  ears  in  his  feet." 
When  he  was  staying  in  Asia,  and  was  taken  prisoner  by  Ar- 
taphernes  the  Satrap,  some  one  said  to  him,  "Are  you  still  cheer- 
ful and  sanguine?"  "  When,  you  silly  fellow,"  he  replied,  "  can 
I  have  more  reason  to  be  cheerful  than  now  when  I  am  on 
the  point  of  conversing  with  Artaphernes  ?"  It  used  to  be  a 
saying  of  his,  that  those  who  enjoyed  the  encyclic  course  of 
education,  but  who  had  omitted  philosophy,  were  like  the 
suitors  of  Penelope ;  for  that  they  gained  over  Melantho  and 
Polydora  and  the  other  maid-servants,  and  found  it  easier  to 
do  that  than  to  marry  the  mistress.  And  Ariston  said  in  like 


ARISTIPPUS.  55 

manner,  that  Ulysses  when  he  had  gone  to  the  shades  below, 
saw  and  conversed  with  nearly  all  the  dead  in  those  regions, 
but  could  not  get  a  sight  of  the  Queen  herself. 

On  another  occasion,  Aristippus  being  asked  what  were  the 
most  necessary  things  for  well -born  boys  to  learn,  said,  "Those 
things  which  they  will  put  in  practice  when  they  become 
men."  And  when  some  one  reproached  him  for  having  come 
from  Socrates  to  Dionysius,  his  reply  was,  "  I  went  to  Socra- 
tes because  I  wanted  instruction,  and  I  have  come  to  Dionysius 
because  I  want  diversion."  As  he  had  made  money  by  having 
pupils,  Socrates  once  said  to  him,  "  Where  did  you  get  so 
much  ?"  and  he  answered,  "  Where  you  got  a  little."  One  day, 
when  he  had  received  some  money  from  Dionysius,  and  Plato 
had  received  a  book,  he  said  to  a  man  who  jeered  him,  "  The 
fact  is,  money  is  what  I  want,  and  books  what  Plato  wants." 
One  day  he  asked  Dionysius  for  some  money,  who  said,  "  But 
you  told  me  that  a  wise  man  would  never  be  in  want ;"  "  Give 
me  some,"  Aristippus  rejoined,  "and  then  we  will  discuss  that 
point ;"  Dionysius  gave  him  some,  "  Now  then,"  said  he,  "  you 
see  that  I  do  not  want  money."  When  Dionysius  said  to 
him: — 

"For  he  who  does  frequent  a  tyrant's  court 
Becomes  his  slave,  though  free  when  first  he  came :" 

He  took  him  up,  and  replied : — 

*  That  man  is  but  a  slave  who  comes  as  free." 

He  once  quarrelled  with  ./Eschines,  and  presently  afterwards 
said  to  him,  "  Shall  we  not  make  it  up  of  our  own  accord,  and 
cease  this  folly  ;  but  will  you  wait  till  some  blockhead  recon- 
ciles us  over  our  cups  ?"  u  With  all  my  heart,"  said  JEschines, 
u  Recollect,  then,"  said  Aristippus,  "  that  I,  who  am  older  than 
you,  have  made  the  lirst  advances."  And  ^Eschines  an- 
swered, "  You  say  well,  by  Juno,  since  you  are  far  better  than 
I ;  for  I  began  the  quarrel,  but  you  begin  the  friendship."  And 
these  are  anecdotes  which  are  told  of  him. 


56  ARISTON. 


ARISTON. 

AEISTON  the  Bald,  a  native  of  Chios,  surnamed  the  Scion, 
said,  that  the  chief  good  was  to  live  in  perfect  indifference  to 
all  those  things  which  are  of  an  intermediate  character  be- 
tween virtue  and  vice;  making  not  the  slightest  difference 
between  them,  but  regarding  them  all  on  a  footing  of  equality. 
For  that  the  wise  man  resembles  a  good  actor,  who,  whether 
he  is  filling  the  part  of  Agamemnon  or  Thersites,  will  perform 
them  both  equally  well. 

And  he  discarded  altogether  the  topic  of  physics  and  of 
logic,  saying  that  the  one  was  above  us,  and  that  the  other 
had  nothing  to  do  with  us ;  and  that  the  only  branch  of  phi- 
losophy with  which  we  had  any  real  concern  was  ethics. 

He  also  said  that  dialectic  reasonings  were  like  cobwebs, 
which,  although  they  seem  to  be  put  together  on  principles 
of  art,  are  utterly  useless.  And  he  did  not  introduce  many 
virtues  into  his  scheme,  as  Zeno  did ;  nor  one  virtue  under 
a  great  many  names,  as  the  Megaric  philosophers  did ;  but 
defined  virtue  as  consisting  in  behaving  in  a  certain  manner 
with  reference  to  a  certain  thing.  And  as  he  philosophized  in 
this  manner,  and  carried  on  his  discussions  in  the  Cynos- 
arges,  he  got  so  much  influence  as  to  be  called  a  founder  of  a 
sect.  Accordingly,  Miltiades  and  Diphilus  were  called  Aris- 
toneans. 

He  was  a  man  of  very  persuasive  eloquence,  and  one  who 
could  adapt  himself  well  to  the  humors  of  a  multitude.  On 
which  account  Timon  says  of  him  :  — 


And  one,  who  from  Ariston's  wily  race 
Traced  his  descent. 


Diocles,  the  Maguesian,  tolls  us,  that  Ariston  having  fallen 
in  with  Polemo,  passed  over  to  his  school,  at  a  time  when 
Zeno  was  lying  ill  with  a  long  sickness.  The  Stoic  doctrine 
to  which  he  was  most  attached,  was  the  one  that  the  wise 


ARISTOTLE.  57 

man  is  never  guided  by  opinions.  But  Persaaus  argued  against 
this,  and  caused  one  of  two  twin  brothers  to  place  a  deposit 
in  his  hands,  and  then  caused  the  other  to  reclaim  it;  and 
thus  he  convicted  him,  as  he  was  in  doubt  on  this  point,  and 
therefore  forced  to  act  on  opinion.  He  was  a  great  enemy  of 
Arcesilaus.  And  once,  seeing  a  bull  of  a  monstrous  conform- 
ation, having  a  womb,  he  said,  "  Alas !  here  is  an  argument 
for  Arcesilaus  against  the  evidence  of  his  senses."  On  an- 
other occasion,  when  a  philosopher  of  the  academy  said 
that  he  did  not  comprehend  anything,  he  said  to  him,  "  Do 
not  you  even  see  the  man  who  is  sitting  next  to  you?" 
And  as  he  said  that  he  did  not,  he  said :  — 

Who  then  has  blinded  you,  who 's  been  so  harsh, 
As  thus  to  rob  you  of  your  beaming  eyes  ? 

It  is  said  that  he,  being  bald,  got  a  stroke  of  the  sun, 
and  so  died.  And  we  have  written  a  jesting  e-A  igrain  on 
him  in  Scayon  iambics,  in  the  following  terras :  — 

Why,  O  Ariston,  being  old  and  bald, 
Did  you  allow  the  sun  to  roast  your  crown  ? 
Thus,  in  an  unbecoming  search  for  warmth, 
Against  your  will,  you  've  found  out  chilly  Hell. 


ARISTOTLE. 

AEISTOTLE  was  a  native  of  Stagira,  a  town  of  Thrace,  on 
the  borders  of  the  bay  of  Strymon,  which  at  that  time  was 
subject  to  Philip  of  Macedon.  His  father  was  a  physician, 
named  Nicornachus;  his  mother's  name  was  Estiada.  From 
the  place  of  his  birth  he  is  called  the  Stagyrite.  Ancient 
writers  are  generally  agreed  in  fixing  the  time  of  his  birth  in 
the  first  year  of  the  ninety-ninth  Olympiad.  He  received  the 
first  rudiments  of  learning  from  Proxenus,  of  Atarna,  in 
Mysia,  of  whom  he  always  retained  a  respectful  remembrance. 


58  ARISTOTLE. 

In  gratitude  for  the  care  which  he  had  taken  of  his  early  edu- 
cation, he  afterwards  honored  his  memory  with  a  statue,  in- 
structed his  son  JSTicanor  in  the  liberal  sciences,  and  adopted 
him  as  his  heir.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  Aristotle  went  to 
Athens,  and  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  philosophy  in 
the  school  of  Plato.  The  uncommon  acuteness  of  his  appre- 
hension, and  his  indefatigable  industry,  soon  attracted  the 
attention  of  Plato,  and  obtained  his  applause.  Plato  used  to 
call  him  the  Mind  of  the  school;  and  to  say  when  he  was 
absent,  "  Intellect  is  not  here."  His  acquaintance  with  books 
was  extensive  and  accurate,  as  sufficiently  appears  from  the 
concise  abridgment  of  opinions,  and  the  numerous  quotations 
which  are  found  in  his  works.  According  to  Strabo,  he  was 
the  first  person  who  formed  a  library.  Aristotle  continued 
in  the  academy  till  the  death  of  Plato,  that  is,  till  the  thirty- 
seventh  year  of  his  age.  After  the  death  of  his  master  he 
erected  a  monument  to  his  memory,  on  which  he  inscribed  an 
epitaph  expressive  of  the  highest  respect,  as  follows : — 

To  Plato's  sacred  name  this  tomb  is  reared, 
A  name  by  Aristotle  long  revered  ! 
Far  hence,  ye  vulgar  herd !  nor  dare  to  stain 
With  impious  praise  this  ever  hallow'd  fane. 

He  likewise  wrote  an  oration  and  elegies  in  praise  of  Plato, 
and  gave  other  proofs  of  respect  for  his  memory.  Little  re- 
gard is  therefore  due  to  the  improbable  tale  related  by  Aris- 
toxenus,  of  a  quarrel  between  Aristotle  and  Plato,  which 
terminated  in  a  temporary  exclusion  of  Aristotle  from  the 
academy,  and  in  his  erection  of  a  school  in  opposition  to  Plato 
during  his  life.  We  find  no  proof  that  Aristotle  instituted  a 
new  system  of  philosophy  before  the  death  of  Plato. 

It  is  certain,  however,  that  when  Speusippus,  upon  the 
death  of  his  uncle,  succeeded  him  in  the  academy,  Aristotle 
was  so  much  displeased,  that  he  left  Athens,  and  paid  a  visit 
to  Hermias,  king  of  the  Atarnenses,  who  had  been  his  friend 
and  fellow  disciple,  and  who  received  him  with  every  express- 


ARISTOTLE.  59 

ion  of  regard.  Here  he  remained  three  years,  and  during 
this  interval  diligently  prosecuted  his  philosophical  researches. 
At  the  close  of  this  term,  his  friend  Hermias  was  taken  pris- 
oner by  Memnon,  a  Rhodian,  and  sent  to  Artaxerxes,  king  of 
Persia,  who  put  him  to  death.  Upon  this,  Aristotle  placed  a 
statue  of  his  friend  in  the  temple  at  Delphos,  and,  out  of-  re- 
spect to  his  memory,  married  his  sister,  whom  her  brother's 
death  had  reduced  to  poverty  and  distress.  Upon  the  death 
of  Hermias,  Aristotle  removed  to  Mitylene,  but  from  what 
inducement  does  not  appear.  After  he  had  remained  there 
two  years,  Philip,  king  of  Macedon,  having  heard  of  his  ex- 
traordinary abilities  and  merit,  made  choice  of  him  as  pre- 
ceptor to  his  son  Alexander,  and  wrote  him  the  following 
letter : — 

"PHILIP  to  AKISTOTLE,  wisheth  liealth : 

"  Be  informed  that  I  have  a  son,  and  that  I  am  thankful 
to  the  gods,  not  so  much  for  his  birth,  as  that  he  was  born  in 
the  same  age  with  you  ;  for  if  you  will  undertake  the  charge 
of  his  education,  I  assure  myself  that  he  will  become  worthy 
of  his  father,  and  of  the  kingdom  which  he  will  inherit." 

Aristotle  accepted  the  charge,  and  in  the  second  year  of 
the  hundred  and  ninth  Olympiad,  when  Alexander  was  in  his 
fifteenth  year,  he  took  up  his  residence  in  the  court  of  Philip. 
He  had  been  himself  well  instructed,  not  only  in  the  doctrines 
of  the  schools,  but  in  the  manners  of  the  world,  and  there- 
fore was  excellently  qualified  for  the  office  of  preceptor  to  the 
young  prince.  Accordingly,  we  find  that  he  executed  his 
trust  so  perfectly  to  the  satisfaction  of  Philip  and  Olympia, 
that  they  admitted  him  to  their  entire  confidence,  and  con- 
ferred upon  him  many  acceptable  tokens  of  esteem.  Philip 
allowed  him  no  small  share  of  influence  in  his  public  councils, 
and  it  reflected  great  honor  upon  Aristotle,  that  he  made  use 
of  his  interest  with  his  prince  rather  for  the  benefit  of  his 
friends  and  the  public,  than  for  his  own  emolument.  At  his 


60  ARISTOTLE. 

intercession,  the  town  of  Stagira,  which  had  fallen  into  decay, 
was  rebuilt,  and  the  inhabitants  were  restored  to  their  ancient 
privileges.  In  commemoration  of  their  obligations  to  their 
fellow-citizen,  and  as  a  testimony  of  respect  for  his  merit,  they 
instituted  an  annual  Aristotelian  festival.  Alexander  enter- 
tained such  an  affection  for  his  preceptor,  that  he  professed 
himself  more  indebted  to  him  than  to  his  father ;  declaring 
that  Philip  had  only  given  him  life,  but  that  Aristotle  had 
taught  him  the  art  of  living  well.  He  is  said,  not  only  to 
have  instructed  his  pupil  in  the  principles  of  ethics  and  policy, 
but  also  to  have  communicated  to  him  the  most  abstruse 
and  concealed  doctrines  of  philosophy.  But  it  may  be  ques- 
tioned whether  a  preceptor,  who  was  himself  so  well  trained 
by  experience  in  the  prudential  maxims  of  life,  would  think 
of  conducting  a  youth,  who  was  destined  to  wield  a  sceptre, 
through  the  intricate  mazes  of  metaphysics,  or  whether  a 
pupil  of  Alexander's  enterprising  spirit  would  be  able  to  bend 
his  mind  to  such  studies.  "What  is  related  concerning  the 
pains  which  Aristotle  took  to  make  his  pupil  acquainted 
with  Homer,  and  to  inspire  him  with  a  love  of  his  writings, 
is  much  more  credible ;  for  he  certainly  could  not  have  adopt- 
ed a  more  judicious  method  of  enriching  the  mind  of  the 
young  prince  with  noble  sentiments,  or  of  inspiring  him  with 
ambition  to  distinguish  himself  by  illustrious  actions. 

After  Aristotle  had  left  his  pupil  they  carried  on  a  friendly 
correspondence,  in  which  the  philosopher  prevailed  upon  Alex- 
ander to  employ  his  increasing  power  and  wealth  in  the  ser- 
vice of  philosophy,  by  furnishing  him,  in  his  retirement,  with 
the  means  of  enlarging  his  acquaintance  with  nature.  Alex- 
ander accordingly  employed  several  thousand  persons  in 
different  parts  of  Europe  and  Asia  to  collect  animals  of  various 
kinds,  birds,  beasts,  and  fishes,  and  sent  them  to  Aristotle,  who 
from  the  information  which  this  collection  afforded  him,  wrote 
fifty  volumes  on  the  history  of  animated  nature,  only  ten  of 
which  are  now  extant.  Oallisthenes,  in  the  course  of  the 


ARISTOTLE.  61 

Asiatic  expedition,  incurred  the  displeasure  of  Alexander  by 
the  freedom  with  which  he  censured  his  conduct ;  the  aversion 
was  by  a  natural  association  transferred  to  Aristotle ;  and 
from  that  time  a  mutual  alienation  and  jealousy  took  place 
between  the  philosopher  and  his  prince.  But  there  is  no  suffi- 
cient reason  to  believe  that  their  attachment  was  converted 
into  a  settled  enmity,  which  at  length  led  them  to  form  de- 
signs against  each  other's  life. 

Aristotle,  upon  his  return  to  Athens,  finding  the  Academy, 
in  which  he  probably  intended  to  preside,  occupied  by  Xeno- 
crates,  resolved  to  acquire  the  fame  of  a  leader  in  philosophy 
by  founding  a  new  sect  in  opposition  to  the  Academy,  and 
teaching  a  system  of  doctrines  different  from  that  of  Plato. 
The  place  which  he  chose  for  his  school  was  the  Lyceum,  a 
grove  in  the  suburbs  of  Athens,  which  had  hitherto  been  made 
use  of  for  military  exercises.  Here  he  held  daily  conversations 
on  subjects  of  philosophy  with  those  who  attended  him,  walking 
as  he  discoursed ;  whence  his  followers  were  called  Peripatetics. 

According  to  the  long-established  practice  of  philosophers 
among  the  Grecians,  Egyptians,  and  other  nations,  Aristotle 
had  his  public  and  his  secret  doctrine,  the  former  of  which 
he  called  the  Exoteric,  and  the  latter  the  Acroamatic  or  Eso- 
teric. Hence  he  divided  his  auditors  into  two  classes,  to  one 
of  which  he  taught  his  Exoteric  doctrine,  discoursing  on  the 
principal  subjects  of  logic,  rhetoric,  and  policy;  the  other  he 
instructed  in  the  Acroamatic,  or  concealed  and  subtle  doctrine, 
concerning  Being,  Nature  and  God.  His  more  abstruse  dis- 
courses he  delivered  in  the  morning  to  his  select  disciples, 
whom  he  required  to  have  been  previously  instructed  in  the 
elements  of  learning,  and  to  have  discovered  abilities  and  dis- 
positions suited  to  the  study  of  philosophy.  He  delivered 
lectures  to  a  more  promiscuous  auditory  in  the  evening,  when 
the  Lyceum  was  open  to  all  young  men  without  distinction. 
The  former  he  called  his  Morning  Walk,  the  latter  his  Evening 
Both  were  much  frequented. 

6 


62  ARISTOTLE. 

Aristotle  continued  his  school  in  the  Lyceum  twelve  years  ; 
for,  although  the  superiority  of  his  abilities,  and  the  novelty 
of  his  doctrines  created  him  many  rivals  and  enemies,  during 
the  life  of  Alexander  the  friendship  of  that  prince  protected 
him  from  insult.  But  after  Alexander's  death,  \vhich  hap- 
pened in  the  first  year  of  the  hundred  and  fourteenth  Olym- 
piad, the  fire  of  jealousy,  which  had  long  been  smothered, 
burst  into  a  flame  of  persecution.  His  adversaries  instigated 
Eurymedon,  a  priest,  to  accuse  him  of  holding  and  propagat- 
ing impious  tenets.  What  these  were,  we  are  not  expressly 
informed,  but  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  doctrine  of  Aris- 
totle concerning  fate  might  be  construed  into  a  denial  of  the 
necessity  of  prayers  and  sacrifices,  and  might  consequently  be 
resented  as  inimical  to  the  public  institutions  of  religion.  This 
would  doubtless  be  thought,  on  the  part  of  the  priesthood,  a 
sufficient  ground  of  accusation,  and  would  be  admitted  by  the 
judges  of  the  Areopagus  :as  a  valid  plea  for  treating  him  as  a 
dangerous  man.  That  Aristotle  himself  was  apprehensive  of 
meeting  with  the  fate  of  Socrates,  appears  from  the  reason 
which  he  gave  his  friends  for  leaving  Athens :  "  I  am  not  will- 
ing," says  he,  "  to  give  the  Athenians  an  opportunity  of  com- 
mitting a  second  offence  against  philosophy."  It  is  certain 
that  he  retired,  with  a  few  of  his  disciples,  to  Chalcis,  where 
he  remained  till  his  death.  He  left  Athens  in  the  second 
year  of  the  hundred  and  fourteenth  Olympiad,  and  died  at 
Chalcis  the  third  year  of  the  same  Olympiad,  and  the  sixty- 
third  year  of  his  age.  Many  idle  tales  are  related  concerning 
the  manner  of  his  death.  It  was  most  likely  that  it  was  the 
effect  of  premature  decay,  in  consequence  of  excessive  watch- 
fulness, and  application  to  study.  His  body  was  conveyed  to 
Stagira,  where  his  memory  was  honored  with  an  altar  and  a 
tomb. 

Aristotle  was  twice  married,  first  to  Pythias,  sister  to  his 
friend  Hermias,  and  after  her  death  to  Herpyllis,  a  native  of 
Stagira.  By  his  second  wife  he  had  a  son  named  Nichoma- 


ARISTOTLE.  63 

elms,  to  whom  he  addressed  his  Magna  Horalia,  "  Greater 
Morals."  His  person  was  slender ;  he  had  small  eyes,  and  a 
shrill  voice,  and  when  he  was  young  hesitated  in  his  speech. 
He  endeavored  to  supply  the  defects  of  his  natural  form  by  an 
attention  to  dress,  and  commonly  appeared  in  a  costly  habit, 
with  his  beard  shaven,  and  his  hair  cut,  and  with  rings  upon 
his  fingers.  He  was  subject  to  frequent  indispositions,  through 
a  natural  weakness  of  stomach;  but  he  corrected  the  infirmi- 
ties of  his  constitution  by  a  temperate  regimen. 

Concerning  the  character  of  Aristotle  nothing  can  be  more 
contradictory  than  the  statements  of  different  writers.  The 
above  account  of  the  Stagirite  is  from  "  Enfield's  Brucker." 
A  number  of  additional  facts  are  furnished  by  Diogenes  Laer- 
ties,  from  whom  we  select  the  following. 

AEISTOTLE  was  the  son  of  Nicomachua  and  Phaestias,  a  citi- 
zen of  Stagira ;  he  lived  with  Amyntas,  the  king  of  the  Mace- 
donians, as  both  a  physician  and  a  friend. 

He  was  the  most  eminent  of  all  the  pupils  of  Plato.  He 
had  a  lisping  voice.  He  also  had  very  thin  legs,  they  say,  and 
small  eyes ;  but  he  used  to  indulge  in  very  conspicuous  dress, 
and  rings,  and  used  to  dress  his  hair  carefully. 

He  had  also  a  son  named  Nicomachus,  by  Herpyllis  his  con- 
cubine, as  we  are  told  by  Timotheus. 

He  seceded  from  Plato  while  he  was  still  alive ;  so  that  they 
tell  a  story  that  he  said,  "  Aristotle  has  kicked  us  off  just  as 
chickens  do  their  mother  after  they  have  been  hatched."  But 
Hermippus  says  in  his  Lives,  that  while  he  was  absent  on  an  em- 
bassy to  Philip,  on  behalf  of  the  Athenians,  Xenocrates  became 
the  president  of  the  school  and  the  Academy ;  and  that  when 
he  returned  and  saw  the  school  under  the  presidency  of  some 
one  else,  he  selected  a  promenade  in  the  Lyceum,  in  which 
he  used  to  walk  up  and  down  with  his  disciples,  discussing  sub- 
jects of  philosophy  till  the  time  fof  anointing  themselves  came ; 
on  which  account  he  was  called  a  Peripatetic.*  But  others 
*  From  peripateo, "  to  walk  about." 


64  ARISTOTLE. 

say  that  lie  got  this  name  because  once  when  Alexander  was 
walking  about  after  recovering  from  a  sickness,  he  accom- 
panied him  and  kept  conversing  with  him.  But  when  his 
pupils  became  numerous,  he  then  gave  them  seats  ;  saying : — 

It  would  be  shame  for  me  to  hold  my  peace, 
And  for  Isocrates  to  keep  on  talking. 

And  he  used  to  accustom  his  disciples  to  discuss  any  ques- 
tion which  might  be  proposed,  training  them  just  as  an  orator 
might. 

After  that  he  went  tt  Hermias  the  Eunuch,  the  tyrant  of 
Atarneus,  who,  as  it  is  said,  allowed  him  all  kinds  of  liberties ; 
and  some  say  that  he  formed  a  matrimonial  connection  with 
him,  giving  him  either  his  daughter  or  his  niece  in  marriage, 
as  is  recorded  in  Demetrius  by  Magnesia.  And  the  same 
authority  says  that  Hermias  had  been  the  slave  of  Eubulus, 
and  a  Bithynum  by  descent,  and  that  he  slew  his  master.  But 
Aristippus,  in  the  first  book  of  his  treatise  on  Ancient  Luxury, 
says  that  Aristotle  was  enamored  of  the  concubine  of  Her- 
mias, and  that,  as  Ilermias  gave  his  consent,  he  married  her ; 
and  was  so  overjoyed  that  he  sacrificed  to  her,  as  the  Athe- 
nians do  the  Eleusinian  Ceres.  And  he  wrote  a  hymn  to 
Hermias,  which  is  given  at  length  below. 

After  that  he  lived  in  Macedonia,  at  the  court  of  Philip, 
and  was  entrusted  by  him  with  his  son  Alexander  as  a  pupil ; 
and  he  entreated  him  to  restore  his  native  city  which  had 
been  destroyed  by  Philip,  and  had  his  request  granted;  and 
he  also  made  laws  for  the  citizens.  And  also  he  used  to  make 
laws  in  his  schools,  doing  this  in  imitation  of  Xenocrates,  so 
that  he  appointed  a  president  every  ten  days.  And  when  he 
thought  that  he  had  spent  time  enough  with  Alexander,  he 
departed  for  Athens,  having  recommended  to  him  his  relation 
Callisthenes,  a  native  of  Olynthus ;  but  as  he  spoke  too  freely  to 
the  king,  and  would  not  take  Aristotle's  advice,  he  reproached 
him  and  said  : — 


ARISTOTLE.  65 

Alas !  my  child,  in  life's  primeval  bloom, 
Such  hasty  words  will  bring  thee  to  thy  doom. 

And  his  prophecy  was  fulfilled,  for  as  he  was  believed  by  Her- 
inolaus  to  have  been  privy  to  the  plot  against  Alexander,  he 
was  shut  up  in  an  iron  cage,  covered  with  lice,  and  untended ; 
and  at  last  he  was  given  to  a  lion,  and  so  died. 

Aristotle  then  having  come  to  Athens,  and  having  presided 
over  his  school  there  for  thirteen  years,  retired  secretly  to 
Chalcis,  as  Eurymedon,  the  hierophant,  had  impeached  him  on 
an  indictment  for  impiety,  though  Pharorinns,  in  his  Universal 
History,  says  that  his  persecutor  was  Demopheius,  on  the 
ground  of  having  written  the  hymn  to  the  before-mentioned 
•Herrnias,  and  also  the  following  epigram  which  was  engraven 
on  his  statue  at  Delphi : — 

The  tyrant  of  the  Persian  archer  race, 

Broke  through  the  laws  of  God  to  slay  this  man ; 

Not  by  the  manly  spear  in  open  fight, 

But  by  the  treachery  of  a  faithless  friend. 

And  after  that  he  died  of  taking  a  draught  of  aconite,  as 
Eurnelus  says  in  the  fifth  book  of  his  Histories,  at  the  age  of 
seventy  years.  And  the  same  author  says  that  he  was  thirty 
years  old  when  he  first  became  acquainted  with  Plato.  But 
this  is  a  mistake  of  his,  for  he  did  only  live  in  reality  sixty- 
three  years,  and  he  was  seventeen  years  old  when  he  first 
attached  himself  to  Plato.  And  the  hymn  in  honor  of  Her- 
mias  is  as  follows :  —  • 

O  Virtue,  won  by  earnest  strife, 

And  holding  out  the  noblest  prize 
That  ever  gilded  earthly  life, 

Or  drew  it  on  to  seek  the  skies  ! 
For  thee  what  son  of  Greece  would  not 
Deem  it  an  enviable  lot, 
To  live  the  life,  to  die  the  death, 

That  fears  no  weary  hour,  shrinks  from  no  fiery  breath  1 
Such  fruit  hast  thoti  of  heavenly  bloom, 

A  lure  more  rich  than  golden  heap, 
More  tempting  than  the  joys  of  home, 

More  bland  than  spell  of  soft-eyed  sleep. 

6* 


66  ARISTOTLE. 

For  thee  Alcides,  son  of  Jove, 

And  the  twin  boys  of  Leda  strove, 

With  patient  toil  and  sinewy  might, 

Thy  glorious  prize  to  grasp,  to  reach  thy  lofty  height. 

Achilles,  Ajax,  for  thy  love 

Descended  to  the  realms  of  night ; 
Atarneus'  king  thy  vision  drove, 

To  quit  for  aye  the  glad  sun-light ; 
Therefore,  to  Memory's  daughter  dear, 
His  deathless  name,  his  pure  career, 
Live  shrined  in  song,  and  linked  with  awe, 
The  awe  of  Xenian  Jove,  and  faithful  friendship's  law. 

. 

There  is  also  an  epigram  of  ours  upon  him,  which  runs 
thus :  — 

Eurymedon,  the  faithful  minister 
Of  the  mysterious  Eleusiman  Queen, 
Was  once  about  t'  impeach  the  Stagirite 
Of  impious  guilt.    But  he  escaped  his  hands 
By  mighty  draught  of  friendly  aconite, 
And  thus  defeated  all  his  wicked  arts. 

Pharorinus,  in  his  Universal  History,  says  that  Aristotle  was 
the  first  person  who  ever  composed  a  speech  to  he  delivered 
in  his  own  defence  in  a  court  of  justice,  and  that  he  did  so 
on  the  occasion  of  this  prosecution,  and  said  that  at  Athens, — 

Pears  upon  pear-trees  grow  ;  oil  fig-trees,  figa. 

Apollodorus,  in  his  Chronicles,  says  that  he  was  born  in 
the  first  year  of  the  ninety-ninth  Olympiad,  and  that  he  at- 
tached himself  to  Plato,  and  remained  with  him  for  twenty 
years,  having  been  seventeen  years  of  age  when  he  originally 
joined  him. 

It  is  said  also  that  he  was  offended  with  the  king,  because 
of  the  result  of  the  conspiracy  of  Calisthenes  against  Alexan- 
der ;  and  that  the  king,  for  the  sake  of  annoying  him,  pro- 
moted Anaximenes  to  honor,  and  sent  presents  to  Xenocrates. 
And  Theocritus,  of  Chios,  wrote  an  epigram  upon  him,  to 
ridicule  him,  in  the  following  terms,  as  it  is  quoted  by  Arn- 
brvon  in  his  account  of  Theocritus :  — 


ARISTOTLE.  67 

The  empty-headed  Aristotle  raised 
This  empty  tomb  to  Hermias  the  Eunuch, 
The  ancient  slave  of  the  ill-used  Eubulus, 
[Who,  for  his  monstrous  appetite,  preferred 
The  Bosphorus  to  Academia's  groves.] 

And  Tiinon  attacked  him  too,  saying  of  him :  — 
Nor  the  sad  chattering  of  the  empty  Aristotle. 

"We  have  also  met  with  his  will,  which  we  give  as  inter- 
esting to  those  who  may  desire  to  know  the  manner  in  which 
this  distinguished  philosopher  disposed  of  his  property.  It 
contains  some  peculiar  features  :  "  May  things  turn  out  well ; 
but  if  anything  happens  to  him,  in  that  case  Aristotle  has 
made  the  following  disposition  of  his  affairs :  That  Antipa- 
ter  shall  be  the  general  and  universal  executor.  And  until 
Nicanor  marries  my  daughter,  I  appoint  Aristomedes,  Timar- 
chus,  Hipparchus,  Dioteles,  and  Theophrastus,  if  he  will  con- 
sent and  accept  the  charge,  to  be  the  guardians  of  my  chil- 
dren and  of  Herpyllis,  and  the  trustees  of  all  the  property  I 
leave  behind  me ;  and  I  desire  them,  when  my  daughter  is  old 
enough,  to  give  her  in  marriage  to  ISTicanor ;  but  if  any 
thing  should  happen  to  the  girl,  which  may  God  forbid, 
either  before  or  after  she  is  married,  but  before  she  has  any 
children,  then  I  will  that  Nicanor  shall  have  the  absolute 
disposal  of  my  son,  and  of  all  other  things,  in  the  full  confi- 
dence that  he  will  arrange  them  in  a  manner  worthy  of  me 
and  of  himself.  Let  him  also  be  the  guardian  of  my  daugh- 
ter and  son  Nicomachus,  to  act  as  he  pleases  with  respect  to 
them,  as  if  he  were  their  father  or  brother.  But  if  anything 
should  happen  to  Eleanor,  which  may  God  forbid,  either  be- 
fore he  receives  my  daughter  in  marriage,  or  after  he  is  mar- 
ried to  her,  or  before  he  has  any  children  by  her,  then  any 
arrangements  which  he  may  make  by  will  shall  stand.  But  if 
Theophrastus,  in  this  case,  should  choose  to  take  my  daughter 
in  marriage,  then  he  is  to  stand  exactly  in  the  same  position  as 
Nicanor.  And  if  not,  then  I  will,  that  my  trustees,  consult- 


68  ARISTOTLE. 

ing  with  Antipater  concerning  both  the  boy  and  girl,  shall 
arrange  everything  respecting  them  as  they  shall  think  fit ; 
and  that  my  trustees  and  Nicanor,  remembering  both  me  and 
Herpyllis,  and  how  well  she  has  behaved  to  me,  shall  take 
care,  if  she  be  inclined  to  take  a  husband,  that  one  be  found 
for  her  that  shall  not  be  unworthy  of  us ;  and  shall  give  her, 
in  addition  to  all  that  has  been  already  given  her,  a  talent  of 
silver,  and  three  maid-servants,  if  she  please  to  accept  them, 
and  the  hand-maid  whom  she  has  now,  and  the  boy  Pyr- 
rhseus.  And  if  she  likes  to  dwell  at  Chalcis,  she  shall  have 
the  house  Avhich  joins  the  garden  ;  but  if  she  likes  to  dwell 
in  Stagira,  then  she  shall  have  my  father's  house.  And 
whichever  of  these  houses  she  elects  to  take,  I  will  that  my 
executors  do  furnish  it  with  all  necessary  furniture,  in  such 
manner  as  shall  seem  to  them  and  to  Herpyllis  to  be  sufficient. 
And  let  Nicanor  be  the  guardian  of  the  child  Myrmex,  60  that 
he  shall  be  conducted  to  his  friends  in  a  manner  worthy  of 
us,  with  all  his  property  which  I  received.  I  also  will  that 
Aubracis  shall  have  her  liberty,  and  that  there  shall  be  given 
to  her  when  her  daughter  is  married,  five  hundred  drachmas, 
and  the  hand-maid  whom  she  now  has.  And  I  will  that 
there  be  given  to  Thales,  besides  the  hand-maiden  whom  she 
now  has,  who  was  bought  for  her,  a  thousand  drachmas,  and 
another  hand-maid.  And  to  Timon,  in  addition  to  the  money 
that  has  been  given  to  him  before  for  another  boy,  an  addi- 
tional slave,  or  a  sum  of  money  which  shall  be  equivalent 
I  also  will  tli at  Tychon  shall  have  his  liberty  when  his  daugh- 
ter is  married,  and  Philou,  and  Olympius,  and  his  son.  More 
over,  of  those  boys  who  wait  upon  me,  I  will  that  none  shal 
be  sold,  but  my  executors  may  use  them,  and  when  they  ar  > 
grown  up,  then  they  shall  emancipate  them  if  they  deserve 
it.  I  desire  too,  that  my  executors  will  take  under  their  care 
the  statues  which  it  has  been  entrusted  to  Gryllion  to  make, 
that  when  they  are  made  they  may  be  erected  in  their  proper 
places  ;  and  so  too  shall  the  statues  of  Nicanor,  and  of  Prox- 


ARISTOTLE.  69 

enus,  which  I  was  intending  to  give  him  a  commission  for, 
and  also  that  of  the  mother  of  Nicanor.  I  wish  them  also 
to  erect  in  its  proper  place  the  statue  of  Arimuestus,  which 
is  already  made,  that  it  may  be  a  memorial  of  her,  since  she 
has  died  childless.  I  wish  them  also  to  dedicate  a  statue  of 
my  mother  to  Ceres  at  jSTemea,  or  wherever  else  they  think 
fit.  And  wherever  they  bury  me,  there  I  desire  that  they 
shall  also  place  the  bones  of  Pythias,  having  taken  them  up 
from  the  place  where  they  now  lie,  as  she  herself  enjoined. 
And  I  desire  that  Nicanor,  as  he  has  been  preserved,  will 
perform  the  vow  which  I  made  on  his  behalf,  and  dedicate 
some  figures  of  animals  in  stone,  four  cubits  high,  to  Jupiter 
the  saviour,  and  Minerva  the  saviour,  in  Stagira." 

And  it  is  said  that  a  great  many  dishes  were  found  in 
his  house ;  and  that  Lycon  stated  that  he  used  to  bathe  in  a 
bath  of  warm  oil,  and  afterwards  to  sell  the  oil.  But  some 
say  that  he  used  to  place  a  leather  bag  of  warm  oil  on  his 
stomach.  And  whenever  he  went  to  bed,  he  used  to  take  a 
brazen  ball  in  his  hand,  having  arranged  a  brazen  dish  below 
it,  so  that,  when  the  ball  fell  into  the  dish,  he  might  be  awak- 
ened by  the  noise. 

The  following  admirable  apophthegms  are  attributed  to  him. 

He  was  once  asked,  what  those  who  tell  lies  gain  by  it: 
"They  gain  this,"  said  he,  "  that  when  they  speak  the  truth 
they  are  not  believed." 

On  one  occasion  he  was  blamed  for  giving  alms  to  a  worth- 
less man,  and  he  replied,  "  I  did  not  pity  the  man,  but  his 
condition." 

He  was  accustomed  continually  to  say  to  his  friends  and 
pupils  wherever  he  happened  to  be,  "  That  sight  receives  the 
light  from  the  air  which  surrounds  it,  and  in  like  manner  the 
soul  receives  the  light  from  the  science." 

Very  often,  when  he  was  inveighing  against  the  Athenians, 
he  would  say  that  they  had  invented  both  wheat  and  laws, 
but  that  they  used  only  the  wheat  and  neglected  the  laws. 


70  ARISTOTLE. 

It  was  a  saying  of  his  that  the  roots  of  education  were  bit- 
ter, but  the  fruit  sweet. 

Once  he  was  asked  what  grew  old  most  speedily,  and  he 
replied,  "  Gratitude." 

On  another  occasion  the  question  was  put  to  him,  what 
hope  is?  and  his  answer  was,  "The  dream  of  a  waking 


man.1 


Diogenes  once  offered  him  a  dry  fig,  and  as  he  conjectured 
that  if  he  did  not  take  it  the  cynic  had  a  witticism  ready 
prepared,  he  accepted  it,  and  then  said  that  Diogenes  had 
lost  his  joke  and  his  fig  too  ;  and  another  time  when  he  took 
one  from  him  as  he  offered  it,  he  held  it  up  as  a  child  does, 
and  said,  "O  great  Diogenes;"  and  then  he  gave  it  to  him 
back  again. 

He  used  to  say  that  there  were  three  things  necessary  to 
education;  natural  qualifications,  instruction,  and  practice. 

Having  heard  that  he  was  abused  by  some  one,  he  said, 
"He  may  beat  me  too,  if  he  likes,  in  my  absence." 

He  used  to  say  that  beauty  is  the  best  of  all  recommenda- 
tions, but  others  say  that  it  was  Diogenes  who  gave  this  de- 
scription of  it ;  and  that  Aristotle  called  beauty,  "  The  gift  of 
a  fair  appearance ;"  that  Socrates  called  it  "  A  short-lived 
tyranny;"  Plato,  " The  privilege  of  nature;"  Theophrastns 
"A  silent  deceit;"  Theocritus,  "An  ivory  mischief;"  Carnea- 
des,  "A  sovereignty  which  stood  in  need  of  no  guards." 

On  one  occasion  he  was  asked  how  much  educated  men 
were  superior  to  those  uneducated ;  "  As  much,"  said  he,  "  as 
the  living  are  to  the  dead." 

It  was  a  saying  of  his  that  education  was  an  ornament  in 
prosperity,  and  a  refuge  in  adversity.  And  that  those  parents 
wrho  gave  their  children  a  good  education  deserve  more 
honor  than  those  who  merely  beget  them  ;  for  that  the  latter 
only  enabled  the  children  to  live,  but  the  former  gave  them 
the  power  of  living  well. 

"When  a  man  boasted  in  his  presence  that  he  was  a  native 


ARISTOTLE.  71 

of  an  illustrious  city,  he  said,  "  That  is  not  what  one  ought  to 
look  at,  but  whether  one  is  worthy  of  a  great  city." 

He  was  once  asked  what  a  friend  is ;  and  his  answer  was, 
"One  soul  abiding  in  two  bodies." 

It  was  a  saying  of  his  that  some  men  were  as  stingy  as  if  they 
expected  to  live  forever,  and  some  as  extravagant  as  if  they 
expected  to  die  immediately. 

"When  he  was  asked  why  people  like  to  spend  a  great  deal 
of  their  time  with  handsome  people,  "That,"  said  he^  "is  a 
question  fit  for  a  blind  man  to  ask." 

The  question  was  once  put  to  him,  what  he  had  gained  by 
philosophy ;  and  the  answer  he  made  was  this,  "  That  I  do 
without  being  commanded,  what  others  do  from  fear  of  the 
laws." 

He  was  once  asked  what  his  disciples  ought  to  do  to  get  on, 
and  he  replied,  "  Press  on  upon  those  who  are  in  front  of 
them,  and  not  wait  for  those  who  are  behind  to  catch  them." 

A  chattering  fellow,  who  had  been  abusing  him,  said  to  him, 
"Have  not  I  been  jeering  you  properly?"  "Not  that  I 
know  of,"  said  he,  "for  I  have  not  been  listening  to  you." 

A  man  on  one  occasion  reproached  him  for  having  given  a 
contribution  to  one  who  was  not  a  good  man  (for  the  story 
which  I  have  mentioned  before  is  also  quoted  in  this  way), 
and  his  answer  was,  "  I  gave  not  to  the  man,  but  to  humanity." 

The  question  was  once  put  to  him,  how  we  ought  to  behave 
to  our  friends ;  and  the  answer  he  gave  was,  "  As  we  should 
wish  our  friends  to  behave  to  us." 

He  used  to  define  justice  as  "  A  virtue  of  the  soul  distribu- 
tive of  what  each  person  deserved." 

Another  of  his  sayings  was,  that  education  was  the  best 
viaticum  for  old  age. 

Pharorinus,  in  the  second  book  of  his  Commentaries,  says 
that  he  was  constantly  repeating,  "  The  man  who  has  friends 
has  no  friend."  And  this  sentiment  is  to  be  found  also  in  the 
seventh  book  of  the  Ethics. 


72  AURELIUS     ANTONINUS. 


AUKELIUS    ANTONINUS. 

THE  great  and  good  emperor,  MAECITS  ATJEELKTS  ANTOXINTJS, 
was  a  man  not  less  distinguished  by  his  learning,  wisdom,  and 
virtue,  than  by  his  imperial  dignity.  "We  shall  here  consider 
him  only  in  the  light  of  a  philosopher,  and  a  patron  of  philos- 
ophers. 

Aurelius,  who  was  born  in  the  year  one  hundred  and 
twenty-one,  after  having  been  early  instructed  in  languages, 
eloquence,  and  liberal  arts,  followed  the  natural  bias  of  his  ge- 
nius, in  devoting  himself  to  the  study  of  philosophy  under 
Sextus  Juuius,  and  other  professors  of  the  Stoic  school.  At 
the  same  time  he  omitted  no  opportunity  of  acquainting  him- 
self with  the  tenets  of  other  sects.  At  twelve  years  of  age  he 
forsook  the  common  pursuits  and  amusements  of  childhood,  and 
assumed  the  habit  of  a  Stoic  philosopher.  In  order  to  inure 
himself  to  the  hardiness  of  the  Stoic  character,  he  used  to 
sleep  upon  the  ground,  with  no  other  covering  than  his  cloak ; 
and  it  was  with  great  difficulty  that  his  mother  prevailed 
upon  him  to  make  use  of  a  leathern  couch.  So  great  was  the 
respect  which  he  always  retained  for  his  preceptors,  that  he 
honored  their  memory  with  statues,  and  kept  their  busts,  or 
portraits,  in  his  domestic  temple. 

The  accomplishments  and  virtues  of  this  excellent  youth  rec- 
ommended him  to  the  favor  of  the  emperor  Adrian,  who  con- 
ducted him  rapidly  through  the  several  stages  of  advance- 
ment, and  who  appointed  Antoninus  Pius  his  successor  upon 
the  express  condition  that  Aurelius  should  be  next  in  success- 
ion. Aurelius,  far  from  being  elated  with  these  honors,  upon 
his  removal  from  his  father's  house  to  the  emperor's  discovered 
great  reluctance,  and  expressed  strong  apprehensions  of  the 
difficulties  and  hazards  of  government.  After  his  advance- 
ment, he  continued  to  treat  his  parents  with  the  same  respect, 
and  to  pay  the  same  regard  to  their  advice  and  authority,  as 


AURELIUS      ANTONINUS.  73 

he  had  before  always  done.  Xor  did  he  suffer  the  engage- 
ments or  avocations  of  his  high  station  to  divert  him  from  the 
prosecution  of  his  studies.  Under  the  direction  of  Apollonius 
the  Chalcidian,  a  Stoic  philosopher,  he  studied  philosophy  as 
the  foundation  of  policy,  in  order  to  qualify  himself  for  the 
offices  of  government. 

During  the  life  of  Antoninus  Pius,  that  emperor  was  greatl}7 
assisted  in  the  affairs  of  government  by  Aurelius,  who  gave 
him  every  possible  proof  of  probity,  fidelity,  and  affection. 
After  the  death  of  the  emperor,  which  happened  in  the  year 
one  hundred  and  sixty-one,  Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus  was, 
with  the  unanimous  concurrence  of  the  senate  and  the  people, 
ad\ranced  to  the  purple  ;  and  through  the  whole  course  of  his 
reign  he  exercised  his  power  under  the  direction  of  philosophy, 
and  by  his  justice  and  clemency  obtained  the  general  love  of 
his  subjects. 

It  is  much  to  be  lamented  that  the  mild  and  gentle  spirit 
which  this  emperor  unquestionably  possessed  should,  with  re- 
spect to  the  Christians,  have  so  far  yielded  to  the  importunity 
of  inferior  governors,  and  the  tumultuous  complaints  of  the 
people,  that  in  several  provinces,  particularly  in  Gaul,  he  per- 
mitted them  to  be  harassed  by  persecution.  Perhaps,  too, 
that  false  notion  of  the  character  and  conduct  of  the  Chris- 
tians, which  led  him,  with  many  others,  to  mistake  their 
meritorious  perseverance  for  culpable  obstinacy,  might  have 
some  share  in  producing  those  severities  which  were  con- 
tinued through  his  whole  reign. 

An  invasion  from  the  north  having  been,  not  without  great 
difficulty,  repelled,  the  emperor  devoted  his  attention  to  the 
institution  of  useful  laws,  and  the  correction  of  civil  and  moral 
disorders.  He  never  failed  to  give  encouragement  to  such  as 
distinguished  themselves  by  their  talents  or  merit,  and  to  rec- 
ommend the  strictest  morality  by  his  own  example.  Whilst 
he  was  indefatigable  in  his  attention  to  public  affairs,  he  filled 
up  every  hour  of  leisure  with  philosophical  studies.  He  suf- 


7 


74  AURELIUS     ANTONINUS. 

fered  no  material  incident  to  pass  without  writing  such  reflec- 
tions upon  it  as  might  serve  to  establish  in  the  mind  the  habit 
of  virtuous  fortitude.  This  practice  produced  those  Meditations, 
which  are  deservedly  reckoned  among  the  most  valuable  re- 
mains of  Stoic  philosophy.  Modesty,  and  humanity,  the  fairest 
fruits  of  wisdom,  were  virtues  peculiarly  conspicuous  in  the 
character  of  this  amiable  prince.  He  despised  flattery,  refused 
magnificent  titles,  and  would  suffer  no  temples  or  altars  to  be 
erected  in  honor  of  his  name.  When  the  rebellion  in  Syria 
was  suppressed,  and  the  head  of  Aulus  Cassius,  the  leader  of 
the  revolt,  was  brought  to  Rome,  the  emperor  received  it 
with  manifest  tokens  of  regret,  and  ordered  it  to  be  buried. 

During  an  interval  of  peace,  Aurelius  took  a  journey  to 
Athens.  His  route  was  marked  with  actions  worthy  of  his 
character;  and  when  he  arrived  at  the  ancient  seat  of  the 
Muses,  he  gave  many  welcome  proofs  of  his  love  of  learning 
and  philosophy,  by  appointing  public  professors,  liberally  en- 
dowing the  schools,  conferring  honors  upon  persons  of  distin- 
guished merit,  and  performing  other  acts  of  imperial  munifi- 
cence. 

Returning  to  Rome,  the  emperor  retired  to  Lavinium,  with 
the  design  of  devoting  himself  to  his  favorite  studies.  But 
after  a  short  interval,  an  irruption  of  Scythians,  and  other 
Northern  people,  obliged  him  to  lead  his  forces  against  them. 
From  this  expedition  he  returned  victorious;  but,  in  his  way 
home,  lie  was  seized  at  Vienna  with  a  mortal  disease.  Aure- 
lius met  his  end  with  great  firmness ;  expressing,  in  the  true 
spirit  of  Stoicism,  indifference  to  life,  and  contempt  of  death. 
He  died  in  the  sixtieth  year  of  his  age. 

Through  his  whole  life,  this  illustrious  philosopher  exhibited 
a  shining  example  of  Stoic  equanimity.  His  countenance  re- 
mained unaltered  by  any  emotions  of  joy  or  sorrow;  he  never 
suffered  himself  to  be  elated  by  victory,  or  depressed  by  de- 
feat. The  severity  which  the  philosophical  system  he  es- 
poused was  adapted  to  cherish,  was,  nevertheless,  happily 


AVERROES.  75 

chastised  uy  an  innate  benevolence  of  heart ;  and  it  is  deser- 
vedly represented  as  his  highest  praise,  that  he  was  able, 
by  the  united  influence  of  his  precepts  and  example,  to  make 
bad  citizens  good,  and  the  good  still  better. 


AVEEBOES. 

OF  all  the  Arabian  philosophers  and  physicians,  the  most 
celebrated  was  Averroes,  a  philosopher  whom  Christians  as 
well  as  Arabians  esteemed  equal,  if  not  superior,  to  Aristotle 
himself.  Averroes  was  born  about  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century,  of  a  noble  family  at  Corduba,  the  capital  of  the  Sar- 
acen dominions  in  Spain.  He  was  early  instructed  in  the 
Islamitic  law,  and,  after  the  usual  manner  of  the  Arabian 
schools,  united  with  the  study  of  Mahometan  theology  that  of 
the  Aristotelian  philosophy.  These  studies  he  pursued  under 
Thophail,  and  became  a  follower  of  the  sect  of  the  Asharites. 
Under  Avenzoar  he  studied  the  science  of  medicine,  and  under 
Ibnu-Saig  he  made  himself  master  of  the  mathematical  sci- 
ences. Thus  qualified,  he  was  chosen,  upon  his  father's 
demise,  to  the  chief  magistracy  of  Corduba.  The  fame  of  his 
extraordinary  erudition  and  talents  soon  afterwards  reached 
the  Caliph  Jacob  Al-Mansor,  king  of  Mauritania,  the  third  of 
the  Almohadean  dynasty,  who  had  built  a  magnificent  school 
at  Morocco ;  and  that  prince  appointed  him  supreme  magis- 
trate and  priest  of  Morocco  and  all  Mauritania,  allowing  him. 
still  to  retain  his  former  honors.  Having  left  a  temporary 
substitute  at  Corduba,  he  went  to  Morocco,  and  remained 
there  till  he  had  appointed,  through  the  kingdom,  judges  well 
skilled  in  the  Mahometan  law,  and  settled  the  whole  plan  of 
administration  ;  after  which  he  returned  home,  and  resumed 
his  offices. 

This  rapid  advancement  of  Averroes  brought  upon  him  the 


76  AVERROES. 

envy  of  his  rivals  at  Corduba,  and  they  conspired  to  lodge  an 
accusation  against  him,  for  an  heretical  desertion  of  the  true 
Mahometan  faith.  For  this  purpose,  they  engaged  several 
young  persons  among  their  dependents,  to  apply  to  him  for 
instruction  in  philosophy.  .  Averroes,  who  was  easy  of  access, 
and  always  desirous  of  com  muni  eating  knowledge,  complied 
with  their  request,  and  thus  fell  into  the  snare  which  had 
been  laid  for  him.  His  new  pupils  were  very  industrious  in 
taking  minutes  of  every  tenet  or  opinion  advanced  by  their 
preceptor,  which  appeared  to  contradict  the  established  sys- 
tem of  Mahometan  theology.  These  minutes  they  framed 
into  a  charge  of  heresy,  and  attested  upon  oath  that  they  had 
been  fairly  taken  from  his  lips.  The  charge  was  signed  by  a 
hundred  witnesses.  The  Caliph  listened  to  the  accusation, 
and  punished  Averroes,  by  declaring  him  heterodox,  confis- 
cating his  goods,  and  commanding  him  for  the  future  to  reside 
among  the  Jews,  who  inhabited  the  precincts  of  Corduba, 
where  he  remained  an  object  of  general  persecution  and  ob- 
loquy. Even  the  boys  in  the  streets  pelted  him  with  stones 
when  he  went  up  to  the  mosque  in  the  city  to  perform  his 
devotions.  His  pupil,  Maimonides,  that  he  might  not  be  un- 
der the  necessity  of  violating  the  laws  of  friendship  and  grati- 
tude, by  joining  the  general  cry  against  Averroes,  left  Cor- 
duba. From  this  unpleasant  situation  Averroes  at  last  found 
means  to  escape.  lie  fled  to  Fez ;  but  he  had  been  there 
only  a  few  days,  when  he  was  discovered  by  the  magistrate, 
and  committed  to  prison.  The  report  of  his  flight  from  Cor- 
duba was  soon  carried  to  the  king,  who  immediately  called  a 
council  of  divines  and  lawyers,  to  determine  in  what  manner 
this  heretic  should  be  treated.  The  members  of  the  council 
were  not  agreed  in  opinion.  Some  strenuously  maintained, 
that  a  man  who  held  opinions  so  contrary  to  the  law  of  the 
prophet  desen'ed  death.  Others  thought  that  much  mischief, 
arising  from  the  dissatisfaction  of  those  among  the  infidels 
who  were  inclined  to  favor  him,  might  be  avoided,  by  only 


AVERROES.  77 

requiring  from  the  culprit  a  public  penance  and  recantation 
of  Lis  errors.  The  milder  opinion  prevailed,  and  Averroes 
was  brought  out  of  prison  to  the  gate  of  the  mosque,  and 
placed  upon  the  upper  step,  with  his  head  bare,  at  the  time 
of  public  prayers,  and  every  one,  as  he  passed  into  the  mosque, 
was  allowed  to  spit  upon  his  face.  At  the  close  of  the  ser- 
vice, the  judge,  with  his  attendants,  came  to  the  philosopher, 
and  asked  him  whether  he  repented  of  his  heresies.  He  ac- 
knowledged his  penitence,  and  was  dismissed  without  further 
punishment.  With  the  permission  of  the  king,  Averroes  re- 
turned to  Corduba,  where  he  experienced  all  the  miseries  of 
poverty  and  contempt.  In  process  of  time,  the  people  became 
dissatisfied  with  the  regent  who  had  succeeded  Averroes,  and 
petitioned  the  king  that  their  former  governor  might  be  re- 
stored. Jacob  Al-Mansor,  not  daring  to  show  such  indulgence 
to  one  who  had  been  infamous  for  heresy,  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  priesthood,  called  a  general  assembly,  in  which  it 
was  debated,  whether  it  would  be  consistent  with  the  safety 
of  religion,  and  the  honor  of  the  law,  that  Averroes  should 
be  restored  to  the  government  of  Corduba.  The  delibera- 
tion terminated  in  favor  of  the  penitent  heretic,  and  he  was 
restored,  by  the  royal  mandate,  to  all  his  former  honors. 
Upon  this  fortunate  change  in  his  affairs,  Averroes  removed 
to  Morocco,  where  he  remained  till  his  death,  which  happen- 
ed, as  some  say,  in  the  year  1195,  or,  according  to  others,  in 
1206. 

Averroes  is  highly  celebrated  for  his  personal  virtues.  He 
practiced  the  most  rigid  temperance,  eating  only,  once  in  a 
day,  the  plainest  food.  So  indefatigable  was  his  industry  in 
the  pursuit  of  science,  that  he  often  passed  whole  nights  in 
study.  In  his  judicial  capacity,  he  discharged  his  duty  with 
great  wisdom  and  integrity.  His  humanity  would  not  per- 
mit him  to  pass  the  sentence  of  death  upon  any  criminal.  He 
left  this  painful  office  to  his  deputies.  He  possessed  so  great 
a  degree  of  self-command  and  patient  lenity,  that  when  one 

7* 


78  AVICENNA. 

of  his  enemies,  in  the  midst  of  a  public  discourse,  sent  a  ser- 
vant to  him  to  whisper  some  abusive  language  in  his  ear,  he 
took  no  other  notice  of  what  passed  than  if  it  had  been  a 
seci-Gt  message  of  business.  The  next  day  the  servant  re- 
turned, and  publicly  begged  pardon  of  Averroes  for  the 
affront  he  had  offered  him ;  upon  which  Averroes  only 
appeared  displeased  that  his  patient  endurance  of  injuries 
should  be  brought  into  public  notice,  and  dismissed  the 
servant  with  a  gentle  caution,  never  to  offer  that  insult  to 
another,  which  had  in  the  present  instance  passed  unpunish- 
ed. Averroes  spent  a  great  part  of  his  wealth  in  liberal  do- 
nations to  learned  men,  without  making  any  distinction  be- 
tween his  friends  and  his  enemies ;  for  which  his  apology 
was,  that  in  giving  to  his  friends  and  relations,  he  only  fol- 
lowed the  dictates  of  Nature  ;  but  in  giving  to  his  enemies 
he  obeyed  the  commands  of  Yirtue.  With  uncommon  abili- 
ties and  learning,  Averroes  united  great  affability  and  urbanity 
of  manners.  He  may  be  justly  regarded  as  one  of  the 
greatest  men  of  his  age. 


AVICENNA. 

AVICENNA,  or  Ibn-Sina,  was  born  at  Bochara  in  the  year 
978.  His  first  preceptor  was  Abu-Abdalla,  a  philosopher, 
whom  his  father  engaged  to  instruct  him  in  his  own  house ; 
concerning  whom  Avicenna  says,  that  he  taught  him  the 
terms  of  logic,  but  was  unacquainted  with  the  nature  of  the 
art.  Before  he  arrived  at  his  eighteenth  year,  Avicenna, 
more,  as  it  seems,  through  his  own  industry  than  by  the  as- 
sistance of  preceptors,  became  well  read  in  languages,  in  the 
Islamitic  law,  and  in  the  sciences.  In  order,  however,  to 
render  himself  a  more  perfect  master  of  the  sublime  doctrines 
of  philosophy,  and  the  subtle  questions  of  dialectics,  he  be- 


AVICENNA.  79 

came  a  student  in  the  school  of  Bagdat.  Here  he  prosecuted 
his  studies  with  indefatigable  industry,  but  at  the  same  time 
•with  a  fanatical  spirit  scarcely  consistent  with  munly  sense 
and  sound  judgment.  When  he  was  perplexed  with  any  log- 
ical question,  or  could  not  discover  a  proper  middle  term  for  a 
syllogism,  he  used  to  repair  to  the  mosque,  and  poured  out 
prayers  for  divine  illumination ;  after  which  he  fancied  that 
the  arguments  and  proofs  he  had  sought  were  communicated 
to  him  in  his  sleep. 

As  was  usual  among  the  philosophers  of  Bagdat,  Avicenna 
united  with  the  study  of  philosophy  the  practice  of  medicine ; 
and  he  soon  acquired  such  a  degree  of  reputation,  that  the 
caliph  consulted  him  with  respect  to  his  son,  in  a  case  which 
perplexed  the  physicians  of  the  court.  His  prescription  suc- 
ceeded, and  the  success  obtained  him  admission  to  the  court, 
and  access  to  the  library  of  the  prince.  «From  this  time  he 
continued  to  prosecute  his  studies  with  diligence,  and  to  prac- 
tise medicine  with  great  applause.  During  this  tide  of  pros- 
perity, Avicenna  had  no  small  degree  of  influence  in  public 
affairs,  and  rapidly  increased  his  possessions.  An  unfortunate 
circumstance,  however,  suddenly  turned  the  current  of  his 
fortune,  and  removed  him  from  the  court  to  a  prison.  The 
sultan  Jasochbagh  proposing  to  send  his  nephew  as  his  repre- 
sentative into  the  native  country  of  Avicenna,  the  young 
prince  obtained  the  sultan's  permission  to  take  Avicenna  with 
him,  as  his  companion  and  physician.  The  sultan  was,  not 
long  afterwards,  informed  that  the  young  prince,  with  his 
brother,  was  meditating  a  rebellion.  Upon  this,  he  immedi- 
ately sent  secret  orders  to  Avicenna,  to  take  off  the  leader  of 
the  conspiracy  by  poison.  The  philosopher  had  too  much 
fidelity  to  his  master  to  fulfil  the  commission,  but  at  the  same 
time,  through  caution  or  fear,  chose  to  conceal  the  order  from 
the  young  prince.  But  when  Avicenna's  master  became,  by 
some  unknown  means,  acquainted  with  the  sultan's  design 
against  his  life,  he  was  so  highly  offended  with  Avicenna  for 


80  B  E  L  U  8 . 

his  dishonest  reserve,  in  not  communicating  to  him  so  import- 
ant a  circumstance,  that  he  ordered  him  to  be  imprisoned. 
Avicenna  endeavored  to  justify  himself,  by  pleading  that  he 
had  concealed  the  sultan's  order,  from  the  hope  of  preventing 
those  mischiefs  which  he  foresaw  must  have  arisen  from  the 
discovery.  The  prince,  however,  suffered  him  to  remain  in 
prison  from  this  time  to  his  death,  which  he  is  said  to  have 
hastened  by  incontinence.  He  died  in  the  fifty-eighth  year 
of  his  age. 


BELUS. 

THERE  are  those  who  ascribe  the  invention  of  Astronomy 
to  Belus.  Pliny  s^ys,  there  is  yet  standing  the  temple  of  Ju- 
piter Belus  ;  he  was  the  inventor  of  the  science  of  the  stars. 
Alian  gives  the  following  relation :  Xerxes,  son  of  Darius, 
waking  up  the  monument  of  ancient  Belus,  found  an  urn  of 
glass,  in  which  his  dead  body  lay  in  oil ;  but  the  urn  was  not 
full;  it  wanted  a  hand-breadth  of  the  top.  Next  the  urn 
there  was  a  little  pillow,  on  which  it  was  written  that  whoso- 
ever should  open  the  sepulchre,  and  did  not  fill  up  the  urn, 
should  have  ill  fortune ;  which  Xerxes  reading,  grew  afraid, 
and  commanded  that  they  should  pour  oil  into  it  with  all 
speed ;  notwithstanding  it  was  not  filled.  Then  he  command- 
ed to  pour  into  it  a  second  time  ;  but  neither  did  it  increase 
at  all  thereby.  So  that  at  last,  failing  of  success,  he  gave 
over,  and,  shutting  up  the  monument,  departed  very  sad. 
Nor  did  the  event  foretold  by  the  pillow  deceive  him  ;  for  he 
led  an  army  of  fifty  myriads  against  Greece,  where  he  re- 
ceived a  great  defeat,  and  returning  home,  died  miserably, 
being  murdered  by  his  own  son,  in  the  night-time,  abed.  To 
this  Belus,  Semiramis,  his  daughter,  erected  a  temple  in  the 
middle  of  Babylon,  which  was  exceedingly  high;  and  by  the 


BIAS.  81 

help  thereof  the  Chaldeans,  who  addicted  themselves  to  con- 
templation of  the  stars,  did  exactly  observe  their  rising  an.d 


setting. 


BIAS. 

BIAS,  who  stands  at  the  head  of  the  seven  wise  men,  was  a 
citizen  of  Priene.  Some  say  that  he  was  the  most  wealthy 
man  in  the  city,  but  others  that  he  was  only  a  settler.  He 
ransomed  some  Messeniaii  maidens,  who  had  been  taken  pris- 
oners, educated  them  as  his  own  daughters,  gave  them  dow- 
ries, and  then  sent  them  back  to  their  father  in  Messina. 
When  the  tripod  was  found  which  bore  the  inscription,  u  For 
the  wise,"  Satyrus  says  that  the  damsels  (but  others  say  it  was 
their  father)  came  into  the  assembly,  and  said  that  Bias  was 
the  wise  man,  recounting  what  he  had  done  to  them  ;  and  so 
the  tripod  was  sent  to  him.  But  Bias,  when  he  saw  it,  said 
that  it  was  Apollo  who  was  "  the  Wise,"  and  consequently 
could  not  receive  the  tripod. 

But  others  say  that  he  consecrated  it  at  Thebes  to  Hercules, 
because  he  himself  was  a  descendant  of  the  Thebans,  who  had 
sent  a  colony  to  Priene,  as  Phanodicus  relates.  It  is  said  also 
than  when  Alyattes  was  besieging  Priene,  Bias  fattened  up 
two  mules,  and  drove  them  into  his  camp  ;  and  that  the  king, 
seeing  the  condition  that  the  mules  were  in,  was  astonished  at 
their  being  able  to  spare  food  to  keep  the  brute  beasts  so  well, 
and  so  he  desired  to  make  peace  with  them,  and  sent  an  am- 
bassador to  them.  On  this  Bias,  having  made  some  heaps  of 
sand,  and  put  corn  on  the  top,  showed  them  to  the  convoy ; 
and  Alyattes,  hearing  from  him  what  he  had  seen,  made  peace 
with  the  people  of  Priene  ;  and  then,  when  he  sent  to  Bias,  de- 
siring him  to  come  quickly  to  him,  "  Tell  Alyattes,  from  me," 
he  replied,  "to  eat  onions  ;" — which  is  the  same  as  if  he  had 
said,  "  go  and  weep." 


82  BIAS. 

It  is  said  that  he  was  very  energetic  and  eloquent  when 
pleading  causes ;  but  that  he  always  reserved  his  talents  for 
the  right  side.  In  reference  to  which  Demodicus  of  Alerius 
uttered  the  following  enigmatical  saying—"  If  you  are  a  judge, 
give  a  Prienian  decision."  And  Hipponax  says,  "  More  excel- 
lent in  his  decisions  than  Bias  of  Priene."  Now  he  died  in 
this  manner : — 

Having  pleaded  a  cause  for  some  one  when  he  was  exceed- 
ingly old,  after  he  had  finished  speaking,  he  leaned  back  with 
his  head  on  the  bosom  of  his  daughter's  son  ;  and  after  the 
advocate  on  the  opposite  side  had  spoken,  and  the  judges  had 
given  their  decision  in  favor  of  Bias's  client,  when  the  court 
broke  up  he  was  found  dead  on  his  grandson's  bosom.  And 
the  city  buried  him  in  the  greatest  magnificence,  and  put  over 
him  this  inscription — 

Beneath  this  stone  lies  Bias,  who  was  born 
In  the  illustrious  Prienian  land, 
The  glory  of  the  whole  Ionian  race. 

And  we  ourselves  have  also  written  an  epigram  on  him — 

Here  Bias  lies,  whom,  when  the  hoary  snow 
Had  crowned  his  aged  temples,  Mercury 
Unpityingly  led  to  Pluto's  durken'd  realms. 
He  pleaded  his  friend's  cause,  and  then  reclin'd 
In  his  child's  arms,  repos'd  in  lasting  sleep. 

He  also  wrote  about  two  thousand  verses  on  Ionia,  to  show 
in  what  matter  a  man  might  best  arrive  at  happiness ;  and  of 
all  his  poetical  sayings  these  have  the  greatest  reputation: — 

Seek  to  please  all  the  citizens,  even  though 
Your  house  may  be  in  an  ungracious  city. 
For  such  a  course  will  favor  win  from  all : 
But  haughty  manners  oft  produce  destruction 

And  this  one  too  : — 

Great  strength  of  body  is  ihe  gift  of  nature ; 
But  to  be  able  to  advise  whate'er 
Is  most  expedient  for  one's  country's  good, 
Is  the  peculiar  work  of  sense  and  wisdom. 


BIAS.  83 

Another  is  :- 

Great  riches  come  to  many  men  by  chance. 

He  used  also  to  say  that  that  man  was  unfortunate  who 
could  not  support  misfortune ;  and  that  it  is  a  disease  of  the 
mind  to  desire  what  was  impossible,  and  to  have  no  regard 
for  the  misfortunes  of  others.  Being  asked  what  was  difficult, 
he  said — "  To  bear  a  change  of  fortune  for  the  worse  with 
magnamity."  Once  he  was  on  a  voyage  with  some  impious 
men,  and  the  vessel  was  overtaken  by  a,  storm ;  so  they  began 
to  invoke  the  assistance  of  the  Gods ;  on  which  he  said,  "  Hold 
your  tongues,  lest  they  should  find  out  that  you  are  in  this 
ship."  When  he  was  asked  by  an  impious  man  what  piety  was, 
he  made  no  reply;  and  when  his  questioner  demanded  the 
reason  of  his  silence,  he  said,  "  I  am  silent  because  you  are 
putting  questions  about  things  with  which  you  have  no  con- 
cern." Being  asked  what  was  pleasant  to  men,  he  replied, 
"  Hope."  It  was  a  saying  of  his  that  it  was  more  agreeable 
to  decide  between  enemies  than  between  friends ;  for  that  of 
friends,  one  was  sure  to  become  an  enemy  to  him ;  but  that 
of  enemies,  one  was  sure  to  become  a  friend.  When  the  ques- 
tion was  put  to  him,  what  a  man  derived  pleasure  in  while  he 
was  doing,  he  said,  "  While  acquiring  gain."  He  used  to  say, 
too,  that  men  ought  to  calculate  life  both  as  if  they  were 
fated  to  live  a  long  and  short  time ;  and  that  they  ought  to 
love  one  another  as  if  at  a  future  time  they  would  come  to 
hate  one  another ;  for  that  most  men  were  wicked.  He  used 
also  to  give  the  following  pieces  of  advice: — Choose  the 
course  which  you  adopt  with  deliberation;  but  when  you 
have  adopted  it,  then  persevere  in  it  with  firmness.  Do  not 
speak  fast,  for  that  shows  folly.  Love  prudence.  Speak  of 
the  Gods  as  they  are.  Do  not  praise  an  undeserving  man  be- 
cause of  his  riches.  Accept  of  things  having  procured  them 
by  persuasion,  and  not  by  force.  Whatever  good  fortune  be- 
falls you,  attribute  it  to  the  Gods.  Cherish  wisdom  as  a  means 


84  B  I  0  N  . 

of  travelling  from  youtn  to  old  age,  for  it  is  more  lasting  than 
any  other  possession.  The  greatest  infelicity  is  not  to  be  able 
to  endure  misfortunes  patiently.  Great  iniuds  alone  can  bear 
a  sudden  reverse  of  fortune.  The  most  pleasant  state  is  to  be 
always  gaining.  Be  not  unmindful  of  the  miseries  of  others. 
If  you  are  handsome,  do  handsome  things.  If  you  are  de- 
formed, supply  the  defects  of  nature  by  your  virtues.  Many 
men  are  dishonest,  therefore  love  your  friend  with  caution,  for 
he  may  hereafter  become  your  enemy. 

During  an  invasion,  whilst  every  one  about  him  was  collect- 
ing his  most  valuable  effects,  and  preparing  for  flight,  one  of 
his  friends  observing  with  surprise  that  he  took  no  pains  to 
preserve  anything,  asked  him  the  reason ;  Bias  replied,  u  I 
carry  all  my  treasures  with  me." 


BION. 

BION  was  a  native  of  the  country  around  Borysthenes; 
but  as  to  who  his  parents  were,  and  to  what  circumstances  it 
was  owing  that  he  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  philosophy, 
we  know  no  more  than  what  he  himself  told  Antigonus.  For 
when  Antigonus  asked  him ; — 

What  art  thou,  say !  from  whence,  from  whom  you  came ; 
Who  are  your  parents  ?  tell  thy  race,  thy  name  ; 

he,  knowing  that  he  had  been  misrepresented  to  tne  king,  said 
to  him,  "  My  father  was  a  freedman,  who  used  to  wipe  his 
mouth  with  his  sleeve,"  (by  which  he  meant  that  he  used  to 
sell  salt  fish.)  "  As  to  his  race,  he  was  a  native  of  the  dis- 
trict of  the  Borysthenes ;  having  no  countenance,  but  only  a 
brand  in  his  face,  a  token  of  the  bitter  cruelty  of  his  master. 
My  mother  was  such  a  woman  as  a  man  of  that  condition 
might  marry,  taken  out  of  a  brothel.  Then,  my  father  being 
in  arrears  to  the  tax-gatherers,  was  sold  with  all  his  family, 


B  I  O  N  .  85 

und  witli  me  among  them ;  and  as  I  was  young  and  good 
looking,  a  certain  orator  purchased  me,  and  when  he  died  he 
left  me  everything.  And  T,  having  burnt  all  his  books,  and 
torn  up  all  his  papers,  came  to  Athens,  and  applied  myself  to 
the  study  of  philosophy  :— 

Such  was  my  father,  and  from  him  I  came, 
The  honored  author  of  my  birth  and  name. 

This  is  all  that  I  can  tell  you  of  myself;  so  that  Persseus  and 
Philonides  may  give  up  telling  these  stories  about  me,  and 
you  may  judge  of  me  on  my  own  merits." 

Bion  was  truly  a  man  of  great  versatility,  and  a  very  subtle 
philosopher,  and  a  man  who  gave  all  who  chose  great  oppor- 
tunities of  practising  philosophy.  In  some  respects  he  was  of 
a  gentle  disposition,  and  very  much  inclined  to  indulge  in 
vanity. 

He  left  behind  him  many  memorials  of  himself  in  the  way 
of  writings,  and  also  many  apoththegms  full  of  useful  senti- 
ments. As,  for  instance,  once  when  he  was  reproved  for 
having  failed  to  charm  a  young  man,  he  replied,  "  You  cannot 
possibly  draw  up  cheese  with  a  hook  before  it  has  got  hard." 
On  another  occasion,  he  was  asked  who  was  the  most  miser- 
able of  men,  and  replied,  "  He  who  has  set  his  heart  on  the 
greatest  prosperity."  When  he  was  asked  whether  it  was 
advisable  to  marry,  (for  this  answer  also  is  attributed  to  him,) 
he  replied,  "  If  you  marry  an  ugly  woman  you  will  have  a 
punishment  (poine),  and  if  a  handsome  woman  you  will  have 
one  that  is  common"  (koine).  He  called  old  age  "  a  port  to 
shelter  one  from  misfortune;"  and  accordingly,  he  said  that 
every  one  fled  to  it.  He  said  that  u  glory  was  the  mother  of 
years;"  that  "beauty  was  a  good  which  concerned  others 
rather  than  one's  self;"  that  "riches  were  the  sinews  of  busi- 
ness." To  a  man  who  had  squandered  his  estate  lie  said, 
"The  earth  swallowed  up  Amphiaraus,  but  you  have  swal- 
lowed up  the  earth."  Another  saying  of  his  was,  that  it  was 

8 


86  B  I  O  N  . 

a  great  evil  not  to  be  able  to  bear  evil.  And  he  condemned 
those  who  burnt  the  dead  as  though  they  felt  nothing,  and 
then  mocked  them  as  though  they  did  feel.  And  he  was 
always  saying  that  it  was  better  to  put  one's  own  beauty  at 
the  disposal  of  another,  than  to  covet  the  beauty  of  others ; 
for  that  one  who  did  so  was  injuring  both  his  body  and  his 
soul.  And  he  used  to  blame  Socrates,  saying,  that  if  he  de- 
rived no  advantage  from  Alcibiades  he  was  foolish,  and  if  he 
never  derived  any  advantage  from  him,  he  then  deserved  no 
credit.  He  used  to  say  that  the  way  to  the  shades  below  was 
easy,  and  accordingly,  that  people  went  there  with  their  eyes 
shut.  He  used  to  blame  Alcibiades,  saying,  that  while  he 
was  a  boy  he  seduced  husbands  from  their  wives,  and  when 
he  had  become  a  young  man  he  seduced  the  wives  from  their 
husbands.  "While  most  of  the  Athenians  at  Rhodes  practised 
rhetoric,  he  himself  used  to  give  lectures  on  philosophical 
subjects ;  and  to  one  who  blamed  him  for  this  he  said,  "  I 
have  bought  wheat,  and  I  sell  barley." 

It  was  a  saying  of  his  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  shades 
below  would  be  more  punished  if  they  carried  water  in  buck- 
ets that  were  whole,  than  in  such  as  were  bored.  To  a  chat- 
tering fellow,  who  was  soliciting  him  for  aid,  he  said,  u  I  will 
do  what  is  sufficient  for  you,  if  you  will  send  deputies  to  me, 
and  forbear  to  come  yourself."  Once  when  he  was  at  sea, 
in  the  company  of  some  wicked  men,  he  fell  into  the  hands 
of  pirates ;  and  when  the  rest  said,  "  We  are  undone,  if  we 
are  known."  "  But  I,"  said  he,  "  am  undone  if  we  are  not 
known."  He  used  to  say  that  self-conceit  was  the  enemy 
of  progress.  Of  a  rich  man  who  was  mean  and  niggardly, 
he  said,  u  That  man  does  not  possess  his  estate,  but  his  estate 
possesses  him."  He  used  to  say  that  stingy  men  took  care 
of  their  property  as  if  it  were  their  own,  but  derived  no  ad- 
vantage from  it,  as  if  it  belonged  to  other  people.  Another 
of  his  sayings  was,  that  young  men  ought  to  display  courage, 
but  that  old  men  ought  to  be  distinguished  for  prudence. 


B I  0  N  .  87 

And  that  prudence  was  as  much  superior  to  the  other  virtues 
as  sight  was  to  the  other  senses.  And  that  it  was  not  right 
to  speak  of  old  age,  at  which  every  one  is  desirous  to  arrive. 
To  an  envious  man  who  was  looking  gloomy,  he  said,  "  I 
know  not  whether  it  is  because  some  misfortune  has  happen- 
ed to  you,  or  some  good  fortune  to  some  one  else."  One 
thing  that  he  used  to  say  was,  that  a  mean  extraction  was  a 
bad  companion  to  freedom  of  speech.  For : — 

It  does  enslave  a  man,  however  bold 
His  speech  may  be. 

And  another  was,  that  "  we  ought  to  keep  our  friends,  what- 
ever sort  of  people  they  may  be,  so  that  we  may  not  seem 
to  have  been  intimate  with  wicked  men,  or  to  have  aban- 
doned good  men." 

Very  early  in  his  career  he  abandoned  the  school  of  the 
Academy,  and  at  the  same  time  became  a  disciple  of  Crates. 
Then  he  passed  over  to  the  sect  of  the  Cynics,  taking  their 
coarse  cloak  and  wallet.  For  what  else  could  ever  have 
changed  his  nature  into  one  of  such  apathy  ?  After  that,  he 
adopted  the  Theodorean  principles,  having  become  a  disciple 
of  Theodorus  the  Atheist,  who  was  used  to  employ  every 
kind  of  reasoning  in  support  of  his  system  of  philosophy. 
After  leaving  him  he  became  a  pupil  of  Theophrastus,  the 
Peripatetic. 

He  was  very  fond  of  theatrical  entertainments,  and  very 
skilful  in  distracting  his  hearers  by  exciting  a  laugh,  giving 
things  disparaging  names.  And  because  he  used  to  avail 
himself  of  every  species  of  reasoning,  they  relate  that  Ere- 
tosthenes  said  that  Bion  was  the  first  person  who  had 
clotbed  philosophy  in  a  flowery  robe.  He  was  also  very  in- 
genious in  parodying  passages,  and  adapting  them  to  circum- 
stances as  they  arose.  And  he  jested  on  every  part  of  music 
and  geometry.  He  was  a  man  of  very  expensive  habits, 
and  on  that  account  he  used  to  go  from  city  to  city,  and 


88  B  I  O  N  . 

at  times  he  would  contrive  the  most  amazing  devices.  Ac- 
cordingly, in  Rhodes,  he  persuaded  the  sailors  to  put  on  the 
habiliments  of  philosophical  students,  and  follow  him  about ; 
and  then  he  made  himself  conspicuous  by  entering  the  gym- 
nasium with  his  train  of  followers.  He  was  accustomed 
also  to  adopt  young  men  as  his  sons,  in  order  to  derive  assist- 
ance from  them  in  his  pleasures,  and  to  be  protected  by 
their  affection  for  him.  But  he  was  a  very  selfish  man,  and 
very  fond  of  quoting  the  saying,  "  The  property  of  friends 
is  common  ;"  owing  to  which  it  is  said  that  no  one  is  spoken 
of  as  a  disciple  of  his,  though  so  many  men  attended  his 
school.  And  he  made  some  very  shameless;  accordingly, 
Betion,  one  of  his  intimate  acquaintances,  is  reported  to  have 
said  once  to  Menedernus,  "  So  Henedemus  constantly  spends 
the  evening  with  Bion,  and  I  see  no  harm  in  it."  He  used 
also  to  talk  with  great  impiety  to  those  who  conversed 
with  him,  having  derived  his  opinions  on  this  subject  from 
Theodorus. 

At  a  later  period  he  became  afflicted  with  disease,  as  the 
people  of  Chalcis  said,  for  he  died  there.  He  was  persuaded  to 
wear  amulets  and  charms,  and  to  show  his  repentance  for  the 
insults  that  he  had  offered  to  the  Gods.  But  he  suffered  fear- 
fully for  want  of  proper  people  to  attend  him,  until  Antigonus 
sent  him  two  servants.  And  he  followed  him  in  a  litter,  as 
Pharorinus  relates  in  his  Universal  History.  And  the  circum- 
stances of  his  death  we  have  ourselves  spoken  of  in  the  follow- 
ing lines : — 

We  hear  that  Bion  the  Borysthenite, 

Whom  the  ferocious  Scythian  land  brought  forth, 

Used  to  deny  that  there  were  Gods  at  all. 

Now,  if  he'd  persevered  in  this  opinion, 

One  would  have  said  he  speaks  just  as  he  thinks  ; 

Though  certainly  his  thoughts  are  quite  mistaken. 

But  when  a  lengthened  sickness  overtook  him, 

And  he  began  to  fear  lest  he  should  die ; 

This  man  who  heretofore  denied  the  Gods, 

And  would  not  even  look  upon  a  temple, 


C  A  L  A  N  C  S  .  89 

And  mocked  :i!l  those  who  e'er  approached  the  Gods 

With  prayer  or  sacrifice  ;  who  ne'er,  not  even 

For  his  own  hearth,  and  home,  and  household  table, 

Regaled  the  Gods  with  savory  fat  and  incense, 

Who  never  once  said,  "  I  have  sinned,  but  spare  me." 

Then  did  this  atheist  shrink,  and  give  his  neck 

To  an  old  woman  to  hang  charms  upon, 

And  bound  his  arms  with  magic  amulets, 

With  laurel  branches  blocked  his  doors  and  windows, 

Ready  to  do  and  venture  anything 

Rather  than  die.    Fool  that  he  was,  who  thought 

To  win  the  Gods  to  come  into  existence, 

Whenever  he  might  think  he  wanted  them. 

So  wise  too  late,  when  now  mere  dust  and  ashes, 

He  put  his  hand  forth,  Hail,  great  Pluto,  Hail ! 


CALANUS. 

CALAXUS  was  of  the  sect  of  Gymnosophists,  called  Brach- 
man.  The  Brachmans  were  all  of  one  tribe.  From  the  time 
of  their  birth  they  were  put  under  guardians,. and,  as  they 
grew  up,  had  a  succession  of  instructors.  They  were  in  a  state 
of  pupilage  till  thirty-six  years  of  age ;  after  which  they  were 
allowed  to  live  more  at  large,  to  wear  fine  linen  and  gold 
rings,  to  live  upon  the  flesh  of  animals  not  employed  in  labor, 
and  to  marry  as  many  wives  as  they  pleased.  Others  sub- 
mitted, through  their  whole  lives,  to  stricter  discipline,  and 
passed  their  days  upon  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  with  no  other 
food  than  fruits,  h&'bs,  and  milk.  The  Samanseans  were  a 
society  formed  of  those  who  voluntarily  devoted  themselves 
to  the  study  of  divine  wisdom.  They  gave  up  all  private  prop- 
erty, and  committed  their  children  to  the  care  of  the  state, 
and  their  wives  to  the  protection  of  their  relations.  They 
were  supported  at  the  public  expense,  and  spent  their  time  in 
contemplation,  in  conversation  on  divine  subjects,  or  in  acts 
of  religion,  A  wonderful  circumstance  is  related  concerning 
these  philosophers ;  that  frequently,  without  any  apparent 

8* 


90  CALVIUS      TAURUS. 

reason  from  ill  health  or  misfortunes,  they  formed  a  resolution 
to  quit  the  world,  and,  when  they  had  communicated  their 
intention  to  their  friends,  immediately,  without  any  express- 
ions of  regret  on  the  one  side,  or  of  apprehension  on  the 
other,  threw  themselves  into  a  fire  which  they  had  them- 
selves prepared  for  the  occasion.  There  was  another  sect, 
called  the  Hylobeons,  who  lived  entirely  in  forests,  upon 
leaves  and  wild  fruits,  wore  no  other  clothing  than  the  bark 
of  trees,  and  practised  the  severest  abstinence  of  every  kind. 

From  this  account  of  the  Indian  Gymnosophists,  it  is  easy 
to  perceive  that  they  were  more  distinguished  by  severity  of 
manners  than  by  the  cultivation  of  science,  and  that  they  more 
resembled  modern  monks  than  ancient  philosophers. 

In  a  conference  which  was  held  with  Onesicritus,  Calanus, 
when  he  saw  Alexander's  messengers  clothed  with  fine  linen 
garments,  and  elegantly  adorned,  laughed  at  their  effeminacy, 
and  requested  them,  if  they  wished  to  hold  any  conference 
with  the  Brachmans,  to  lay  aside  their  ornaments,  and,  like 
them,  recline  upon  the  naked  rocks.  It  is  also  related,  that 
when  he  found  the  infirmities  of  age  coming  upon  him,  he  de- 
voted himself  to  voluntary  death,  and  ascending  the  funeral 
pile,  said,  "  Happy  hour  of  departure  from  life,  in  which,  as  it 
happened  to  Hercules,  after  the  mortal  body  is  burned,  the 
soul  shall  go  forth  into  light!" 


CALVISIUS    TAURUS. 

CALVISIUS  TAURUS  flourished  under  the  reign  of  Antoninus 
Pius.  He  is  mentioned  as  a  Platonist  of  some  note.  Among 
his  pupils  was  Aulus  Gellius,  a  man  of  various  learning,  who 
has  preserved  several  specimens  of  his  preceptor's  method  of 
philosophizing.  He  examined  all  sects,  but  preferred  the  Pla- 
tonic, in  which  he  had  at  least  the  merit  of  avoiding  the  infec- 


C  A  T  0  .  91 

tion  of  that  spirit  of  confusion,  which  at  this  period  seized  al- 
most the  whole  body  of  the  philosophers,  especially  those  of  the 
Platonic  school.  He  lived  at  Athens,  and  taught,  not  in  the 
schools,  hut  at  his  table.  A.  Gellius,  who  was  frequently  one 
of  his  guests,  and  whose  Noctis  Atticce,  uAttic  Evenings,"  are 
doubtless  much  indebted  to  these  philosophical  entertainments, 
gives  the  following  account  of  the  manner  in  which  they  were 
conducted:  "Taurus,  the  philosopher,  commonly  invited  a 
select  number  of  his  friends  to  a  frugal  supper,  consisting  of 
lentils,  and  a  gourd,  cut  into  small  pieces  upon  an  earthen 
dish ;  and  during  the  repast,  philosophical  conversation  upon 
various  topics  was  introduced.  His  constant  disciples,  whom 
he  called  his  family,  were  expected  to  contribute  their  share 
towards  the  small  expense  which  attended  these  simple  re- 
pasts, in  which  interesting  conversation  supplied  the  place  of 
luxurious  provision.  Every  one  came  furnished  with  some 
new  subject  of  inquiry,  which  he  was  allowed  in  his  turn  to 
propose,  and  which,  during  a  limited  time,  was  debated.  The 
subjects  of  discussion,  in  these  conversations,  were  not  of  the 
more  serious  and  important  kind,  but  such  elegant  questions 
as  might  afford  an  agreeable  exercise  of  the  faculties  in  the 
moments  of  convivial  enjoyment ;  and  these  Taurus  afterwards 
frequently  illustrated  more  at  large  with  sound  erudition." 


CATO. 

CATO  the  younger  was  a  Stoic  in  opinion  and  character. 
He  is  called  Cato  of  Utica  from  the  last  memorable  scene  of 
his  life.  From  his  childhood  he  discovered  in  his  countenance 
and  language,  and  even  in  his  sports,  an  inflexible  spirit.  He 
had  such  a  natural  gravity  of  aspect,  that  his  features  were 
scarcely  ever  relaxed  into  a  smile.  He  was  seldom  angry,  but 


92  C  A  T  O . 

when  provoked  was  not  without  difficulty  appeased.  In  ac- 
quiring learning,  he  was  slow  of  perception,  but  his  memory 
faithfully  retained  whatever  it  received.  Being  in  early  life 
elected  to  the  office  of  a  flamen  of  Apollo,  he  made  choice  of 
Antipater,  a  Tynan,  of  the  Stoic  sect,  as  his  preceptor  in 
morals  and  jurisprudence,  that  in  his  sacred  character  he 
might  exhibit  an  example  of  the  most  rigid  virtue.  His  lan- 
guage, both  in  private  and  public,  was  a  true  image  of  his 
mind,  free  from  all  affectation  of  novelty  or  elegance ;  plain, 
concise,  and  somewhat  harsh  ;  enlivened  with  strokes  of  genius, 
which  could  not  be  heard  without  pleasure.  He  inured  him- 
self to  endure,  without  injury,  the  extremes  of  heat  and  cold. 
To  express  his  contempt  of  effeminate  and  luxurious  manners, 
he  refused  to  wear  the  purple  robe  which  belonged  to  his 
rank,  and  often  appeared  in  public  without  his  tunic,  and 
with  his  feet  uncovered ;  and  this  he  did,  not  for  the  sake  of 
attracting  admiration,  but  to  teach  his  fellow-citizens  that  a 
wise  man  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  nothing  which  is  not  in  it- 
self shameful. 

In  the  civil  war,  Cato  carried  his  virtues  with  him  into  mili- 
tary life,  and  exhibited  before  his  fellow  commanders  an  exam- 
ple of  unusual  moderation,  sobriety,  and  magnanimity.  Whilst 
he  was  in  Macedonia,  in  the  capacity  of  military  tribune,  it  hap- 
pened that  his  brother  Csepio,  whom  he  had  always  loved, 
perished  in  shipwreck.  Cato,  upon  this  occasion,  forgot  his 
Stoicai  principles,  and  so  far  yielded  to  the  impulse  of  nature, 
as  to  embrace,  with  many  tears  and  lamentations,  the  dead 
body  which  had  been  cast  upon  the  shore,  and  to  bury  it  with 
splendid  sepulchral  honors.  So  difficult  is  it,  by  any  artificial 
discipline  of  philosophy,  to  subdue  the  feelings  of  nature. 
During  his  residence  in  Greece,  Cato  having  heard  of  an  emi- 
nent Stoic,  Athenodorns  Cordyliones,  who  had  rejected  the 
proffered  friendship  of  several  princes,  and  was  now  passing 
his  old  age  in  retirement  at  Pergamus,  resolved  if  possible  to 
make  him  his  friend  ;  and,  as  he  had  no  hopes  of  succeeding 


C  A  T  0  .  93 

by  message,  undertook  for  this  sole  purpose  a  voyage  into 
Asia.  Upon  the  interview,  Atlienodorus  found  in  Cato  a  soul 
so  congenial  with  his  own  "that  he  was  easily  prevailed  upon 
to  accompany  him  into  Greece,  and,  after  the  term  of  Gate's 
military  service  was  expired,  to  reside  with  him,  as  his  compan- 
ion and  friend,  at  Rome.  Cato  boasted  of  this  acquisition  more 
than  of  all  his  military  exploits.  After  his  return,  he  devoted 
his  time  either  to  the  society  of  Athenodorus,  and  his  other 
philosophical  friends,  or  to  the  service  of  his  fellow-citizens  in 
the  forum. 

When.  Cato  had,  by  diligent  study,  qualified  himself  for  the 
duties  of  magistracy,  he  accepted  of  the  office  of  questor.  He 
corrected  the  abuses  of  this  important  trust,  which  negligence 
or  dishonesty  had  introduced,  and  by  his  upright  and  steady 
administration  of  justice  merited  the  highest  applause.  In 
every  other  capacity  he  manifested  the  same  inviolable 
regard  to  truth  and  integrity.  "Whilst  he  was  engaged  in  the 
business  of  the  senate,  he  was  indefatigable  in  the  discharge 
of  his  senatorial  duty;  and  even  when  he  was  among  his 
philosophical  friends  at  his  farm  in  Lucania  he  never  inter- 
rupted his  attention  to  the  welfare  of  tne  state.  It  was  during 
a  recess  of  this  kind  that  he  discovered  the  danger  which 
threatened  the  republic  from  the  machinations  of  Metellus ; 
and,  with  a  truly  patriotic  spirit,  he  instantly  determined  that 
private  enjoyment  should  give  way  to  public  duty.  That  he 
might  be  in  a  capacity  to  oppose  with  effect  the  designs  of 
Metellus,  he  offered  himself  candidate  for  the  office  of  Tribune 
of. the  people;  and  being  chosen,  executed  the  office  (notwith- 
standing the  illiberal  jests  which  Cicero,  inconsistently  enough 
with  his  general  professions  and  character,  on  this  occasion 
cast  upon  his  Stoical  virtue)  with  a  degree  of  probity,  candor 
and  independence,  which  fully  established  the  public  opinion 
of  his  superior  merit. 

At  a  period  when  the  Roman  affairs  were  in  the  utmost 
confusion,    and    powerful    factions   were    repeatedly   formed 


94  C  A  T  O  . 

against  the  state,  Cato,  withstood  the  assaults  which  were 
made  upon  liberty  by  Marcellus,  Pompey,  Caasar,  and  others, 
with  such  a  firm  and  resolute  adherence  to  the  principles  of 
public  virtue,  that  no  apprehension  of  danger  to  himself  or 
his  family  could  ever  induce  him  to  listen  to  any  proposal 
which  implied  a  treacherous  desertion  of  his  country.  Whilst 
some  were  supporting  the  interest  of  Caesar,  and  others  that 
of  Pompey,  Cato,  himself  a  host,  withstood  them  both,  and 
convinced  them  that  there  was  another  interest  still  existing — 
that  of  the  state.  "When  he  saw  that  the  necessity  of  the 
times  required  it,  in  order  that,  of  two  impending  evils,  the 
least  might  be  chosen,  he  persuaded  the  senate  to  create  Pom- 
pey sole  consul,  that,  if  possible,  he  might  crush  the  growing 
power  of  Coasar,  which  threatened  destruction  to  the  freedom 
of  the  republic.  It  was  with  this  design  alone  that,  upon 
Cassar's  approach  towards  Rome,  he  declared  himself  on  the 
side  of  Pompey,  and  that  he  afterwards  became  a  companion 
of  his  flight,  and  at  the  head  of  an  army  supported  his  cause. 
The  same  public  spirit  afterwards  prompted  him  to  endeavor 
to  save  his  country  from  the  last  extremities  of  civil  wrar  by 
proposing  a  reconciliation  between  the  contending  f  powers. 
And  when  Pompey  treated  the  proposal  with  neglect,  and 
seemed  to  distrust  the  adviser,  Cato,  still  true  to  the  cause  of 
freedom,  at  the  battle  of  Dyrrachium  roused  the  languid  spirit 
of  the  soldiers  by  an  animated  address ;  but  afterwards  when, 
in  the  course  of  the  engagement,  he  saw  his  countrymen 
butchering  one  another,  he  bitterly  lamented  the  fatal  effects 
of  ambition. 

After  the  battle  of  Pharsalia,  which  at  once  cut  off  the 
hopes  of  Pompey,  Cato,  with  a  small  band  of  select  friends, 
and  fifteen  cohorts,  of  which  Pompey  had  given  him  the  com- 
mand, still  attempted  to  support  the  expiring  cause  of  liberty. 
His  determination  was  to  follow  Pompey  into  Egypt,  and 
there  share  his  fate ;  but  when  he  arrived  upon  the  African 
coast,  he  was  met  by  Sextus,  Poinpey's  younger  son,  who  in- 


C  A  T  O  .  95 

formed  him  of  his  father's  death.  Cato,  upon  hearing  these 
tidings,  marched  the  small  force  which  was  under  his  com- 
mand into  Libya,  to  meet  Scipio,  Pompey's  father-in-law,  and 
Varus,  to  whom  Pompey  had  given  the  government  in  Africa, 
and  who  were  paying  their  court  to  Juba.  Though  strongly 
importuned,  he  refused  to  take  the  command  of  the  African 
forces  from  those  officers,  to  whom  it  had  been  legally  ap- 
pointed ;  but,  at  the  request  of  Scipio,  and  of  the  inhabitants, 
he  took  the  charge  of  Utica. 

The  defeat  of  Scipio  and  Juba,  in  the  battle  of  Thapsus, 
contracted  the  remaining  strength  of  the  Roman  republic 
within  the  walls  of  this  small  city.  Here  Cato,  as  his  last 
effort  in  the  service  of  his  country,  convened  his  little  senate 
to  deliberate  upon  measures  for  the  public  good.  Their  con- 
sultations proved  ineffectual;  and  Cato  despaired  of  being 
longer  able  to  serve  his  country.  He  therefore  advised  his 
friends  to  provide  for  their  safety  by  flight,  but,  for  his  own 
part,  resolved  not  to  survive  the  liberties  of  Koine.  At  the 
close  of  an  evening,  in  which  he  had  conversed  with  more 
than  usual  spirit  on  topics  of  philosophy,  he  retired  with 
great  cheerfulness  into  his  chamber,  where,  after  reading  a 
portion  of  Plato's  Phcedo,  he  ordered  his  sword  to  be  brought. 
His  attendants  delayed ;  and  his  son  and  friends  importuned 
him  to  desist  from  his  purpose.  The  stern  philosopher  dis- 
missed them  from  his  apartment,  and  again  took  up  the  book. 
After  a  short  interval,  he  executed  his  purpose  by  stabbing 
himself  below  the  breast.  By  those  who  have  been  better  in- 
structed, this  action  will,  doubtless,  be  deemed  criminal,  and 
will  be  imputed  to  rashness,  or  to  weakness.  But  it  should 
be  remembered  that  the  situation  of  Cato,  in  concurrence 
with  his  Stoical  principles,  strongly  impelled  him  to  this  fatal 
deed ;  and  that  whatever  censure  he  may  deserve  on  this  ac- 
count, he  supported,  through  his  whole  life,  a  character  of  in- 
flexible integrity,  and  uncorrupted  public  spirit.  Whilst  he 


96  CARNEADES. 

lived,  be  held  up  before  bis  fellow-citizens  a  pattern  of  manly 
virtue;  and  when  he  died,  be  taught  the  conquerors  of  the 
world  that  the  noble  mind  can  never  be  subdued. 

I  see  the  world  subdued, 
All  but  the  mighty  soul  of  Cato. 


CARNEADES. 

CARNEADES,  one  of  the  most  illustrious  ornaments  of  the 
Academy,  was  an  African,  a  native  of  Gyrene.  The  time  of 
his  birth  has  been  a  subject  of  much  debate.  It  is  probable 
that  he  was  born  in  the  third  year  of  the  hundred  and  forty- 
first  Olympiad.  He  received  his  first  knowledge  of  the  art 
of  reasoning  from  Diogenes,  the  Stoic  ;  whence  he  used  some- 
times to  say,  in  the  course  of  a  debate,  "If  I  have  reasoned 
right,  I  have  gained  my  point;  if  not,  let  Diogenes  return 
me  my  mince"  meaning  the  price  he  had  paid  him  for  his  in- 
struction. Afterwards,  becoming  a  member  of  the  Academy, 
he  attended  upon  the  lectures  of  Hegesinus,  and  by  assiduous 
study  became  an  eminent  master  of  the  method  of  disputing 
which  Arcesilaus  had  introduced.  He  succeeded  Hegesinus 
in  the  chair,  and  restored  the  declining  reputation  of  the 
Academy.  With  Diogenes  the  Stoic,  and  Oitolaus  the  Peri- 
patetic, he  was  sent  on  an  embassy  from  Athens  to  Rome,  to 
complain  of  the  severity  of  a  fine  inflicted  upon  the  Athen- 
ians, under  the  authority  of  the  Romans,  by  their  neighbors, 
the  Sicyonians,  for  having  laid  waste  Oropus,  a  town  in 
Bceotia.  The  Athenians  would  undoubtedly,  upon  this  occa- 
sion, employ  none  but  those  in  whose  judgment,  eloquence, 
and  integrity,  they  could  confide.  The  three  philosophers 
whom  they  entrusted  with  their  embassy,  whilst  they  were 
in  Rome,  gave  the  Roman  people  many  specimens  of  Gre- 
cian learning  and  eloquence,  with  which  till  then  they  had 


CARNEADES.  97 

been  unacquainted.  Carneades  excelled  in  the  vehement  and 
rapid,  Oritolaus  in  the  correct  and  elegant,  and  Diogenes  in 
the  simple  and  modest  kind  of  eloquence.  Carneades  partic- 
ularly attracted  the  attention  and  admiration  of  his  new 
auditors,  by  the  subtlety  of  his  reasoning,  and  the  fluency 
of  his  language.  Before  Galba,  and  Cato  the  Censor,  he 
harangued,  with  great  variety  of  thought  and  copiousness  of 
diction,  in  praise  of  justice.  The  next  day,  to  establish  his 
doctrine  of  the  uncertainty  of  human  knowledge,  he  under- 
took to  refute  all  his  former  arguments.  Many  were  capti- 
vated by  his  eloquence  ;  but  Cato,  apprehensive  lest  the  Ro- 
man youth  should  lose  their  military  character  in  the  pursuit 
of  Grecian  learning,  persuaded  the  senate  to  send  back  these 
philosophers,  without  further  delay,  to  their  own  schools. 

From,  this  incident,  of  ivhich  we  shall  afterwards  have 
further  occasion  to  take  notice,  it  sufficiently  appears  that 
Carneades  was  an  eminent  orator  and  philosopher.  He  ob- 
tained such  high  reputation  in  his  school,  that  other  philoso- 
phers, when  they  had  dismissed  their  scholars,  frequentlj 
came  to  hear  him.  In  application  to  study  he  was  indefativ 
gable.  So  intensely  did  he  fix  his  thoughts  upon  the  subject 
of  his  meditations,  that  even  at  meals  he  frequently  forgot  to 
take  the  food  which  was  set  before  him.  He  strenuously 
opposed  the  Stoic  Chrysippus,  but  was  always  ready  to  do 
justice  to  his  merit.  He  used  to  say,  that  "if  there  were 
no  Chrysippus,  there  would  be  no  Carneades;"  intimating, 
that  he  derived  much  of  his  reputation  as  a  disputant  from 
the  abilities  of  his  opponent.  His  voice  was  remarkably 
strong,  and  he  had  such  a  habit  of  vociferation,  that  the 
master  of  the  gymnastic  exercises,  in  the  public  field,  desired 
him  not  to  speak  so  loud.  In  return,  he  requested  some 
measure  to  regulate  his  voice;  to  which  the  master  very  ju- 
diciously replied,  "  You  have  a  measure,  the  number  of  your 
hearers."  As  Carneades  grew  old,  he  discovered  strong  ap- 
prehensions of  dying,  and  frequently  lamented  that  the  same 

9 


98  CARNEADES. 

nature  which  had  composed  the  human  frame  could  dissolve 
it.  He  paid  the  last  debt  to  nature  in  the  eighty-fifth,  or, 
according  to  Cicero  and  Valerius  Maximus,  in  the  ninetieth 
year  of  his  age. 

Diogenes  Laertius  relates  of  him,  that  he  read  all  the 
books  of  the  Stoics  with  great  care,  and  especially  those  of 
Chrysippus ;  and  then  he  wrote  replies  to  them,  but  did  it 
at  the  same  time  with  such  modesty;  that  he  used  to  say,  "  If 
Chrysippus  had  not  lived,  I  should  never  have  existed."  It  is 
said  that  at  night  he  was  not  aware  when  lights  were  brought 
in  ;  and  that  once  he  ordered  his  servant  to  light  the  candles, 
and  when  he  had  brought  them  in  and  told  him ;  "  Well, 
then,"  said  he,  "  read  by  the  light  of  them." 

He  was  a  man  of  as  great  industry  as  ever  existed ;  not, 
1  .owever,  very  much  devoted  to  the  investigation  of  subjects 
of  natural  philosophy,  but  more  fond  of  the  discussion  of  eth- 
ical topics,  on  which  account  he  used  to  let  his  hair  and  his 
nails  grow,  from  his  entire  devotion  of  all  his  time  to  philo- 
sophical pursuits. 

He  appears  to  have  been  beset  with  fears  of  death,  as  he 
was  continually  saying,  "Nature,  who  has  put  this  frame 
together,  will  also  dissolve  it."  And  learning  that  Antipater 
had  died  after  having  taken  poison,  he  felt  a  desire  to  imitate 
the  boldness  of  his  departure,  and  said,  "  Give  me  some  too." 
And  when  they  asked  "What?"  "Some  mead,"  said  he. 
And  it  is  said  that  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  happened  when 
he  died,  the  most  beautiful  of  all  the  stars,  next  to  the  sun, 
indicating  (as  any  one  might  say)  its  sympathy  with  the  phi- 
losopher. And  Apollodorus,  in  his  Chronicles,  says  that  he 
died  in  the  fourth  year  of  the  hundred  and  sixty-second  Olym- 
piad, being  eighty-five  years  old. 

I  have  written  on  him  the  following  lines  in  logoaedical 
Archcbulian  metre  :— 

Why  now,  O  Muse,  do  you  wish  rue  Carneades  to  confute  ? 
He  was  an  ignoramus,  as  he  did  not  understand 


c  H  i  L  o  .  99 

Why  he  should  stand  in  fear  of  death.     So  once,  when  he  'd  a  cough, 
The  worst  of  all  diseases  that  affect  the  human  frame, 
He  cared  not  for  a  remedy ;  but  when  the  news  did  reach  him, 
That  brave  Antipater  had  ta'en  some  poison,  and  so  died, 
"Give  me,"  said  he,  "some  stuff  to  drink."    ''Some  what?"    "Some  lus- 
cious mead." 

Moreover,  he  'd  this  saying  at  all  times  upon  his  lips : 
"  Nature  did  make  me,  and  she  does  together  keep  me  still ; 
But  soon  the  time  will  come  when  she  will  pull  me  all  to  pieces." 
But  still  at  last  he  yielded  up  the  ghost;  though  long  ago 
He  might  have  died,  and  so  escaped  the  evils  that  befell  him. 


CHILO. 

CHILO  was  a  Lacedaemonian,  the  son  of  Damagetus.  He 
composed  verses  in  elegiac  metre  to  the  number  of  two  hun- 
dred ;  and  it  was  a  saying  of  his  that  a  foresight  of  future 
events,  such  as  could  be  arrived  at  by  consideration,  was  the 
virtue  of  a  man.  He  also  said  once  to  his  brother,  who  was 
indignant  at  not  being  an  ephor,  wThile  he  himself  was  one: 
"  The  reason  is  because  I__know  how  to  bear  injustice ;  but 
you  do  not."  And  he  was  made  ephor  in  the  fifty -fifth  Olym- 
piad ;  but  Pamphila  says  that  it  was  in  the  fifty-sixth.  And 
he  was  made  first  ephor  in  the  year  of  the  archonship  of 
Euthydemus,  as  we  are  told  by  Sosicrates.*  Chilo  was 
also  the  first  person  who  introduced  the  custom  of  joining 
the  ephors  to  the  kings  as  their  counsellors ;  though  Satyrus 
attributes  this  institution  to  Lycurgus.  He,  as  Herodotus  says, 
when  Hippocrates  was  sacrificing  at  Olympia,  and  the  caul- 
drons began  to  boil  of  their  own  accord,  advised  him  either  to 
marry,  or,  if  he  were  married  already,  to  discard  his  wife,  and 
disown  his  children. 

They  tell  a  story,  also,  of  his  having  asked  JEsop  what  Ju- 
piter was  doing,  and  that  ^Esop  replied,  "  He  is  lowering 

*  An  Ephor  was  a  magistrate  appointed  by  the  people,  and  intended  as  a 
check  upon  the  regal,  or,  as  some  say,  upon  the  senatorial  power. 


100  CHILO  = 

what  is  high,  and  exalting  what  is  low."  Being  asked  in 
what  educated  men  differed  from  those  who  were  illiterate, 
he  said,  "In  good  hopes."  Having  had  the  question  put  to 
him,  What  was  difficult,  he  said,  "  To  be  silent  about  secrets ; 
to  make  good  use  of  one's  leisure,  and  to  be  able  to  submit  to 
injustice.'1  And  besides  these  three  things  he  added  further, 
"To  rule  one's  tongue,  especially  at  a  banquet,  and  not  to 
speak  ill  of  one's  neighbors ;  for  if  one  does  so  one  is  sure  to 
to  hear  what  one  will  not  like."  He  advised,  moreover,  "  To 
threaten  no  one ;  for  that  is  a  womanly  trick.  To  be  more 
prompt  to  go  to  one's  friends  in  adversity  than  in  prosperity. 
To  make  but  a  moderate  display  at  one's  marriage.  Not  to 
speak  evil  of  the  dead.  To  honor  old  age.  To  keep  a  watch 
upon  one's  self.  To  prefer  punishment  to  disgraceful  gain; 
for  the  one  is  painful  but  once,  but  the  other  for  one's  whole 
life.  Not  to  laugh  at  a  person  in  misfortune.  If  one  is  strong 
to  be  also  merciful,  so  that  one's  neighbors  may  respect  one 
rather  than  fear  one.  To  learn  how  to  regulate  one's  own 
house  well.  Not  to  let  one's  tongue  outrun  one's  sense.  To 
restrain  anger.  Not  to  dislike  divination.  Not  to  desire  what 
is  impossible.  Not  to  make  too  much  haste  on  one's  road. 
When  speaking,  not  to  gesticulate  with  the  hand  ;  for  that  is 
like  a  madman.  To  obey  the  laws.  To  love  quiet."  ^ 
And  of  all  his  songs  this  one  was  the  most  approved : — 

Gold  is  best  tested  by  a  whetstone  hard, 
Which  gives  a  certain  proof  of  purity  ; 
And  gold  itself  acts  as  the  test  of  men, 
By  which  we  know  the  temper  of  their  minds. 

They  say,  too,  that  when  he  was  old  he  said,  that  he  was 
not  conscious  of  having  ever  done  an  unjust  action  in  his  life  ; 
but  that  he  doubted  about  one  thing.  For  that  once  when 
judging  in  a  friend's  cause  he  had  voted  himself  in  accordance 
with  the  law,  but  had  persuaded  a  friend  to  vote  for  his  ac- 
quittal, in  order  that  so  he  might  maintain  the  law,  and  yet 
save  his  friend. 


CHILD.  101 

But  he  was  most  especially  celebrated  among  the  Greeks 
for  having  delivered  an  early  opinion  about  Cythera  an 
island  belonging  to  Laconia.  For  having  become  acquainted 
with  its  nature,  he  said,  "  I  wish  it  had  never  existed,  or  that, 
as  it  does  exist,  it  were  sunk  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea."  And 
his  foresight  was  proved  afterwards.  For  when  Demaratus 
was  banished  by  the  Lacedseinonians,  he  advised  Xerxes  to 
keep  his  ships  at  that  island ;  and  Greece  would  have  been 
subdued,  if  Xerxes  had  taken  the  advice.  And  afterwards 
Nicias,  having  reduced  the  island  at  the  time  of  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  war,  placed  in  it  a  garrison  of  Athenians,  and  did  a 
great  deal  of  harm  to  the  Lacedemonians. 

He  was  very  brief  in  his  speech.  On  which  account  Arista- 
goras,  the  Milesian,  calls  such  conciseness,  the  Ohilonean 
fashion ;  and  says  that  it  was  adopted  by  Branchus,  who  built 
the  temple  among  the  Branchiclse.  Chilo  was  an  old  man, 
about  the  fifty-second  Olympiad,  when  ^Esop,  the  fable  writer, 
flourished.  And  he  died,  as  Hermippus  says,  at  Pisa,  after 
embracing  his  son,  who  had  gained  the  victory  in  boxing  at 
the  Olympic  games.  The  cause  of  his  death  was  excess  of  joy, 
and  weakness  caused  by  extreme  old  age.  All  the  spectators 
who  were  present  at  the  games  attended  his  funeral,  paying 
him  the  highest  honors.  And  we  have  written  the  following 
epigram  on  him : — 

I  thank  you  brighest  Pollux,  that  the  son 

Of  Chilo  wears  the  wreath  of  victory ; 
Nor  need  we  grieve  if  at  the  glorious  sight 

His  father  died.    May  such  my  last  end  be ! 

And  the  following  inscription  is  engraved  on  his  statue : — 

The  warlike  Sparta  called  this  Chilo  son, 
The  wisest  man  of  all  the  seven  sages. 

One  of  his  sayings  was,  "  Suretyship,  and  then  destruction." 
He  was  one  of  the  seven  wise  men  of  Greece,  and  that  im- 
portant saying  is  ascribed  to  him — KNOW  THYSELF. 

9* 


102  CHRYSIPPUS. 


CHRYSIPPUS. 

CHRYSIPPTTS  was  the  son  of  Apollonius,  a  native  of  either 
Soli  or  Tarsus,  and  a  pupil  of  Clean  thes,  and  while  he  was 
still  living  he  abandoned  him,  and  became  a  very  eminent 
philosopher.  He  was  a  man  of  great  natural  ability,  and  of 
great  acuteness  in  every  way,  so  that  on  many  points  he  dis- 
sented from  Zcno,  and  also  from  Oleanthes,  to  whom  he  often 
used  to  say  that  he  only  wanted  to  be  instructed  in  the  dog- 
mas of  the  school,  and  that  he  would  discover  the  demon- 
strations for  himself.  But  whenever  he  opposed  him  with 
any  vehemence,  he  always  repented,  so  that  he  used  fre- 
quently to  say : — 

In  most  respects  I  am  a  happy  man, 
Excepting  where  Cleanthes  is  concerned  ; 
For  in  that  matter  I  am  far  from  fortunate. 

And  he  had  such  a  high  reputation  as  a  dialectician,  that 
most  people  thought  that  if  there  were  such  a  science  as  dia- 
lectics among  the  Gods,  it  would  be  in  no  respect  different 
from  that  of  Chrysippus.  But  though  he  was  so  eminently 
able  in  matter,  he  was  not  perfect  in  style. 

He  was  industrious  beyond  all  other  men,  as  is  plain  from 
his  writings ;  for  he  wrote  more  than  seven  hundred  and 
five  books.  And  he  often  wrote  several  books  on  the  same 
subject,  wishing  to  put  down  everything  that  occurred  to 
him,  and  constantly  correcting  his  previous  assertions,  and 
using  a  great  abundance  of  testimonies.  So  that,  as  in  one 
of  his  writings  he  had  quoted  very  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
Medea  of  Euripides,  and  some  one  had  his  book  in  his  hands  ; 
this  latter,  when  he  was  asked  what  he  had  got  there,  made 
answer,  u  The  Medea  of  Chrysippus."  And  Apollodorus,  the 
Athenian,  in  his  Collection  of  Dogmas,  wishing  to  assert  that 
what  Epicurus  had  written  out  of  his  own  head,  and  with- 
out any  quotations  to  support  his  arguments,  was  a  great 


CHRYSIPPUS.  103 

deal  more  than  all  the  books  of  Chrysippus,  speaks  thus  (I 
give  his  exact  words) :  "  For  if  any  one  were  to  take  away 
from  the  books  of  Ohrysippus  all  the  passages  which  he  quotes 
from  other  authors,  his  paper  would  be  left  empty." 

These  are  the  words  of  Apollodorus ;  but  the  old  woman 
who  lived  with  him,  as  Dioles  reports,  used  to  say  that  he 
wrote  five  hundred  lines  every  day.  And  Hecaton  says,  that 
he  first  applied  himself  to  philosophy  when  his  patrimony 
had  been  confiscated,  and  seized  for  the  royal  treasury. 

He  was  slight  in  person,  as  is  plain  from  his  statue  wrhich 
is  in  the  Oeramicus,  which  is  nearly  hidden  by  the  equestrian 
statue  near  it ;  in  reference  to  which  circumstance,  Carneades 
called  him  Cryxippus.*  He  was  once  reproached  by  some 
one  for  not  attending  the  lectures  of  Ariston,  who  was  draw- 
ing a  great  crowd  after  him  at  the  time ;  and  he  replied,  "  If 
I  had  attended  to  the  multitude  I  should  not  have  been  a 
philosopher."  And  once,  when  he  saw  a  dialectician  pressing 
hard  on  Cleanthes,  and  proposing  sophistical  fallacies  to  him, 
he  said,  "  Cease  to  drag  that  old  man  from  more  important 
business,  and  propose  those  questions  to  us  who  are  young." 
At  another  time,  when  some  one  wishing  to  ask  him  some- 
thing privately,  was  addressing  him  quietly,  but  when  he  saw 
a  multitude  approaching  began  to  speak  more  energetically,  he 
said  to  him : — 

Alas,  my  brother !  now  your  eye  is  troubled ; 

You  were  quite  sane  just  now  ;  and  yet  bow  quickly 

Have  you  succumbed  to  frenzy ,f 

And  at  drinking  parties  he  used  to  behave  quietly,  moving  his 
legs  about  however,  so  that  a  female  slave  once  said,  "  It  is 
only  the  legs  of  Chrysippus  that  are  drunk."  And  he  had  so 
high  an  opinion  of  himself,  that  once,  when  a  man  asked  him, 
"  To  whom  shall  I  entrust  my  son?"  he  said,  "  To  me,  for  if 

*  From  krupto,  to  bide,  and  hippos,  a  horse. 
f  These  lines  are  from  the  Erestes  of  Euripides. 


104  CHRYSIPPUS. 

I  thought  that  there  was  any  one  better  than  myself,  I  would 
have  gone  to  him. to  teach  me  philosophy."  In  reference  to 
which  anecdote  they  report  that  people  used  to  say  of  him : — 

He  has  indeed  a  clear  and  subtle  head, 
The  rest  are  forms  of  empty  aether  made.* 

And  also : — 

For  If  Chrysippus  had  not  lived  and  taught, 
The  Stoic  school  would  surely  have  been  nought. 

But  at  last,  when  Arcesilaus  and  Lacydes,  as  Sotion  records 
in  his  eighth  book,  came  to  the  Academy,  he  joined  them 
in  the  study  of  philosophy ;  from  which  circumstance  he  got 
the  habit  of-  arguing  for  and  against  a  custom,  and  discussed 
magnitudes  and  quantities,  following  the  system  of  the  Acad- 
emies. 

Hermippus  relates,  that  one  day,  when  he  was  teaching  in 
the  Odeum,  he  was  invited  to  a  sacrifice  by  his  pupils ;  and, 
that  drinking  some  sweet  unmixed  wine,  he  was  seized  with 
giddiness,  and  departed  this  life  five  days  afterwards,  when  he 
had  lived  seventy -three  years;  dying  in  the  hundred  and 
forty-third  Olympiad,  as  Apollodorus  says  in  his  Chronicles. 
And  we  have  written  an  epigram  on  him : — 

Chrysippus  drank  with  open  mouth  some  wine  ; 
Then  became  giddy,  and  so  quickly  died. 
Too  little  reck'd  he  of  the  Porch's  weal, 
Or  of  his  country's,  or  of  his  own  dear  life : 
And  so  descended  to  the  realms  of  Hell. 

But  some  people  say  that  he  died  of  a  fit  of  immoderate 
laughter.  For  that  seeing  his  ass  eating  figs,  he  told  his  old 
woman  to  give  the  ass  some  unmixed  wine  to  drink  after- 
wards, and  then  laughed  so  violently  that  he  died. 

He  appears  to  have  been  a  man  of  exceeding  arrogance. 
Accordingly,  though  he  wrote  such  numbers  of  books,  he 
never  dedicated  one  of  them  to  any  sovereign.  And  when 

*  This  is  a  quotation  from  Homer. 


CHRT8IPPUS.  105 

Ptolemy  wrote  to  Cleanthes,  begging  him 'either  to  come  to 
him  himself,  or  to  send  him  some  one,  Sphserus  went  to  him, 
hut  Chrysippus  slighted  the  invitation.  However,  he  sent  for 
the  sons  of  his  sister,  Aristocrea  and  Philocrates,  and  edu- 
cated them ;  and  he  was  the  first  person  who  ventured  to 
hold  a  school  in  the  open  air  in  the  Lyceum. 

There  was  also  another  Chrysippus,  a  native  of  Cnidos,  a 
physician,  from  whom  Erasistratus  testifies  that  he  received 
great  benefit.  And  another  also,  who  was  a  son  of  his,  and 
the  physician  of  Ptolemy  ;  who,  having  had  a  false  accusation 
brought  against  him,  was  apprehended  and  punished  by  being 
scourged.  There  was  also  a  fourth,  who  was  a  pupil  of  Era- 
sistratus ;  and  a  fifth  was  an  author  of  a  work  called  Georgics. 

Now  this  philosopher  used  to  delight  in  proposing  questions 
of  this  sort :  The  person  who  reveals  the  mysteries  to  the 
uninitiated  commits  a  sin  ;  the  hierophant  reveals  them  to 
the  uninitiated  ;  therefore  the  hierophant  commits  sin?  An- 
other was,  that  which  is  not  in  the  city,  is  also  not  in  the 
house;  but  a  well  is  not  in  the  city,  therefore  there  is  not  a 
well  in  the  house.  Another  was,  there  is  a  certain  head ; 
that  head  you  have  not  got ;  there  is  then  a  head  that  you 
have  not  got ;  therefore  you  have  not  got  a  head.  Again,  if 
a  man  is  in  Megara,  he  is  not  in  Athens ;  but  there  is  a  man 
in  Megara,  therefore  there  is  not  a  man  in  Athens.  Again, 
if  you  say  anything,  what  you  say  comes  out  of  your  mouth ; 
but  you  say  ua  waggon  ;"  therefore  a  waggon  comes  out  of 
your  mouth.  Another  was,  if  you  have  not  lost  a  thing,  you 
have  it ;  but  you  have  not  lost  horns ;  therefore  you  have 
horns.  Though  some  attribute  this  sophism  to  Eubulides. 

There  are  people  who  run  Olirysippus  down  as  having 
written  a  great  deal  that  is  very  shameful  and  indecent.  And 
in  his  treatise  on  Polity,  he  allows  people  to  marry  their 
mothers,  or  their  daughters,  or  their  sons.  And  he  repeats 
this  doctrine  in  his  treatise  on  those  things  which  are  not  de- 
sirable for  their  own  sake,  in  the  very  opening  of  it.  And  in 


106  CHRYSIPPUS. 

the  third  book  of  his  treatise  on  Justice,  he  devotes  a  thou- 
sand lines  to  bidding  people  to  devour  even  the  dead. 

In  the  second  book  of  his  treatise  on  Life  and  Means  of 
Support,  where  he  is  warning  us  to  consider  beforehand,  how 
the  wise  man  ought  to  provide  himself  with  means,  he  says, 
"  And  yet  why  need  he  provide  himself  with  means  ?  for  if  it 
is  for  the  sake  of  living,  living  at  all  is  a  matter  of  indiffer- 
ence ;  if  it  is  for  the  sake  of  pleasure,  that  is  a  matter  of  in- 
difference too  ;  if  it  is  for  the  sake  of  virtue,  that  is  of  itself 
sufficient  for  happiness.  But  the  methods  of  providing  one's 
self  with  means  are  ridiculous;  for  instance,  some  derive 
them  from  a  king ;  and  then  it  will  be  necessary  to  humor 
him.  Some  from  friendship ;  and  then  friendship  will  become 
a  thing  to  be  bought  with  a  price.  Some  from  wisdom  ;  and 
then  wisdom  will  become  mercenary  ,  and  these  are  the  accu- 
sations which  he  brings." 

The  friends  of  the  Stoic  school  complained  that  in  the 
warmth  of  dispute,  whilst  he  was  attempting  to  load  his  ad- 
versary with  the  reproach  of  obscurity  and  absurdity,  his 
own  ingenuity  often  failed  him,  and  he  adopted  such  unusual 
and  illogical  modes  of  reasoning  as  gave  his  opponents  great 
advantage  against  him.  It  was  also  a  common  practice  with 
Ohrysippus,  at  different  times,  to  take  the  opposite  sides  of  the 
same  question,  and  thus  furnish  his  antagonists  with  weapons 
which  might  easily  be  turned,  as  occasions  offered,  against 
himself.  Carneades,  who  was  one  of  his  most  able  and  skilful 
adversaries,  frequently  availed  himself  of  this  circumstance, 
and  refuted  Chrysippus  by  convicting  him  of  inconsistency. 
Plutarch,  in  his  piece,  "  On  Stoic  Contradictions,"  has  collect- 
ed many  examples  of  inconsistent  opinions,  most  of  which  are 
ascribed  to  Chrysippus. 


CICERO.  107 


CICEKO. 

MAEOTJS  TULLITS  CICEKO  was  born  at  Arpinum,  in  the  64/Tth 
year  of  the  city.  During  his  childhood  lie  distinguished  him- 
self in  literary  contests  with  his  companions,  and  studied  under 
several  masters,  among  whom  he  particularly  mentions  Plo- 
tius,  a  Greek  preceptor,  Phsedras,  an  Epicurean  philosopher, 
and  Archias,  the  poet.  He  made  several  juvenile  attempts  in 
poetry;  but,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  few  fragments  of  his 
verses  which  remain,  with  no  great  degree  of  success.  After 
he  had  fipished  his  puerile  studies,  he  applied  his  mature  judg- 
ment to  philosophy  under  Philo  of  Larissa  ;  a  philosopher  who 
was  held  in  the  highest  esteem  among  the  Komans,  both  for 
his  learning  and  manners.  From  the  same  preceptor  he  also 
received  instruction  in  rhetoric ;  for,  from  the  first,  Cicero 
made  philosophy  subservient  to  eloquence. 

In  the  eighteenth  year  of  his  age  Cicero  studied  law  under 
the  direction  of  Mucius  Scosvola,  an  eminent  augur,  to  who 
he  was  introduced  by  his  father,  when  he  put  on  the  manly 
dress,  with  this  advice,  never  to  lose  an  opportunity  of  con- 
versing with  that  wise  arid  excellent  man.  After  a  short  in- 
terval, in  which  he  engaged  in  military  expeditions,  first 
under  Sylla,  then  under  Pompey,  he  returned  with  great  im- 
patience to  his  studies.  At  this  time  he  put  himself  under 
the  constant  tuition  of  Diodotus,  a  Stoic,  chiefly  for  the  sake 
of  exercising  himself  in  dialectics,  which  the  Stoics  considered 
as  a  restricted  kind  of  eloquence,  but  not  without  an  assiduous 
attention  to  many  other  branches  of  study,  in  which  this 
learned  philosopher  was  well  qualified  to  instruct  him.  About 
the  age  of  twenty  years  he  translated  into  the  Latin  tongue 
Xenophon's  (Economics,  and  several  books  of  Plato.  A  speci- 
men of  Ms  version  of  the  Timseus  of  Plato  is  preserved  in  his 
works. 

Having  thus  prepared  himself  for  his  profession  by  indefati- 


108  CICERO. 

gable  study,  Cicero  made  his  first  appearance  in  public  at 
twenty-six  years  of  age,  and  pleaded  in  defence  of  Roscius 
against  the  accusation  of  Sylla.  Soon  afterwards,  under  the 
plea  of  recruiting  his  strength,  whicli  he  had  impaired  by  the 
violence  of  his  oratorical  exertions,  but  perhaps  chiefly  through 
fear  of  Sylla,  whom  he  had  opposed,  he  withdrew  to  Athens. 
Here  he  attended  on  Antiochus  the  Ascalonite ;  but  not  ap- 
proving his  doctrine,  which  differed  from  that  of  the  Middle 
Academy,  he  became  a  hearer  of  Posidonius  the  Ehodian.  By 
frequenting  the  schools  of  these  and  other  preceptors,  he  ac- 
quired such  a  love  of  philosophy,  that  after  his  return  to 
Rome,  amidst  the  business  of  the  forum  and  the  senate,  he  al- 
ways found  leisure  for  the  speculations  of  the  schools.  Upon 
his  second  appearance  in  public,  he  met  with  some  discourage- 
ment from  a  prevalent  opinion  that  he  was  better  qualified  for 
the  study  of  philosophy  than  for  the  business  of  active  life. 
But  his  superior  powers  of  eloquence  soon  subdued  every 
prejudice  against  him,  and  raised  him  to  the  highest  distinc- 
tion among  his  fellow-citizens.  In  the  successive  offices  of 
questor,  edile,  and  pretor,  he  acquitted  himself  with  great 
reputation.  In  the  consulate  he  obtained  immortal  honor  by 
his  bold  and  successful  opposition  to  the  machinations  of  Cati- 
line and  his  party,  and  received  the  glorious  title  of  Father  of 
his  Country. 

The  popularity  which  Cicero  had  acquired  during  his  con- 
sulship exposed  him  to  the  envy  of  his  rivals.  Soon  after- 
terwards,  his  unsuccessful  attempt  to  bring  Clodius  to  public 
justice  brought  upon  him  the  resentment  of  that  daring  and 
seditious  profligate ;  and,  notwithstanding  all  the  efforts  of 
the  senate  to  protect  him,  the  affair  terminated  in  his  banish- 
ment from  Rome.  Leaving  Italy,  he  passed  over  into  Greece, 
and  visited  his  friend  Plancius  at  Thessalonica,  who  afforded 
him  a  hospitable  asylum.  All  good  men  lamented  his  dis- 
grace, and  many  Grecian  cities  vied  with  each  other  in 
offering  him  tokens  of  respect.  But  nothing  could  alleviate  tl  t  ^ 


CICERO.  109 

dejection  which  he  suffered,  whilst  he' lay  under  a  sentence  of 
banishment  from  the  country  which  had  been  tbj  seat  of 
all  his  former  honors.  He  remained  inconsolable,  till,  after 
an  interval  of  sixteen  months,  the  Clodian  party  was  sup- 
pressed by  Pompey,  and,  by  the  unanimous  voice  of  Iho  senate 
and  people,  he  was  recalled. 

In  Cicero's  subsequent  questorship  in  Cilicia  his  conduct  was 
highly  meritorious  ;  for  he  exercised  his  authority  with  exem- 
plary mildness  and  integrity,  and,  in  the  midst  of  war,  culti- 
vated the  arts  of  peace.  On  his  return,  he  called  at  Khodes, 
and  made  a  short  stay  at  Athens,  where  he  had  the  satisfac- 
tion of  revisiting  the  places  in  which  his  youthful  feet  had 
wandered  in  search  of  wisdom,  and  of  conversing  with  many 
of  his  former  preceptors  and  friends. 

When  the  flames  of  civil  dissension  between  Pompey  and 
Caesar  began  to  burst  forth,  Cicero  used  his  utmost  influence 
with  each  party  to  bring  them  to  terms  of  accommodation. 
Finding  every  attempt  of  this  kind  unsuccessful,  he  long  re- 
mained in  anxious  deliberation,  whether  he  should  followr  Pom- 
pey in  a  glorious  and  honorable,  but  ruined  cause ;  or  should 
consult  his  own  safety,  and  that  of  his  friends,  by  following  the 
rising  fortunes  of  Csesar.  Had  the  latter  motive  preponderated, 
he  would  have  listened  to  the  counsel  of  Cassar,  who  advised 
him,  if  on  Account  of  his  advancing  years  he  were  averse  to 
military  life,  to  retire  into  some  remote  part  of  Greece,  and 
pass  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  tranquillity.  But  he  could 
not  persuade  himself  to  desert  the  ancient  constitution  of  his 
country,  which  he  had  hitherto  honestly  defended,  and  there- 
fore determined  to  join  the  party  of  Pompey.  Afterwards, 
however,  when  he  found  that  Pompey  slighted  his  friendship, 
he  repented  of  his  resolution  ;  and,  after  the  memorable  battle 
of  Pharsalia,  instead  of  accepting  the  charge  of  the  armament, 
which  lay  at  Dyrrachium,  as  Cato  advised,  he  met  Cassar  on 
his  return  from  Asia,  and  accepted  his  friendship. 

From  this  time  Cicero,  no  longer  able  to  serve  his  country 

10 


110  CICERO. 

in  the  manner  he  wished,  retired  from  public  affairs,  resolv- 
ing to  devote  himself  wholly  to  the  study  of  philosophy.  He 
employed  the  unwelcome  leisure,  which  the  ruin  of  the  re- 
public afforded  him,  in  reading  or  writing;  and  he  found 
more  satisfaction  in  conversing  with  the  dead  in  his  valuable 
library  at  Tusculum,  than  in  visiting  Rome  to  pay  homage  to 
Csosar.  His  tranquillity  was,  however,  soon  interrupted  by 
domestic  vexations  and  afflictions.  From  causes  which  are 
not  fully  explained,  he  divorced  his  wife  Terentia ;  and  his 
daughter  Tullia,  who  was  married  to  Lentulus,  died  in  child-bed. 
Soon  after  the  death  of  Cassar,  although  it  does  not  appear 
that  Cicero  had  any  concern  in  the  conspiracy,  he  fell  a  sac- 
rifice to  the  resentment  of  Antony,  who  could  not  forget  the 
severe  Philippics  which  the  orator  had  delivered  against  him. 
When  the  triumvirate  was  formed,  and  it  was  reciprocally 
agreed  that  some  of  the  enemies  of  each  party  should  be  given 
up,  Antony  demanded  the  head  of  Cicero.  Accordingly, 
after  much  contention,  and  on  the  part  of  Octavius  a  delay  of 
three  days,  Cicero  was  registered  among  the  hundred  and 
thirty  senators  who  were  doomed  to  destruction  by  this  san- 
guinary proscription.  Apprized  by  his  friends  of  the  danger, 
he  fled  from  place  to  place  for  safety ;  always  thinking,  as  was 
natural  in  such  a  situation,  any  other  place  more  secure 
than  the  present.  His  last  retreat  was  to  a  small  farm  which 
he  had  at  Caieta.  The  house  was  surrounded  by  the  appointed 
executioners  of  the  bloody  commission.  After  an  unsuccess- 
ful attempt  of  his  attendants  to  save  him  by  conveying  him 
away  on  a  litter  towards  the  sea,  Popilius  Laanas,  a  military 
tribune,  in  whose  behalf  Cicero  had  formerly  pleaded  when 
he  was  accused  of  parricide,  came  up  to  the  litter,  and  struck 
off  his  head,  while  some  of  the  soldiers,  who  were  standing  by, 
cut  off  his  hands.  These  mangled  remains  of  this  great  man 
were  conveyed  to  Antony,  who,  in  triumphant  revenge, 
placed  them  upon  the  rostra  of  that  pulpit  from  which  the 
orations  against  him  had  been  delivered ;  not,  however,  with- 


CICERO.  Ill 

out  exciting  ranch  indignation  in  the  populace,  who  bitterly 
lamented  the  tragical  end  of  this  father  of  his  country.  His 
death  happened  in  the  710th*  year  of  the  city,  and  in  the  sixty  - 
fcurth  year  of  his  age. 

From  the  whole  history  of  the  life  of  Cicero  it  appears  that, 
though  exceedingly  ambitious  of  glory,  he  wanted  strength  of 
mind  sufficient  to   sustain   him  in   its  pursuit.     Perpetually 
fluctuating  between  hope  and  fear,  he  was  unable  to  support 
with  equanimity  the  convulsions  of  a  disordered  state  and  the 
commotions  of  a  civil  war ;  and  therefore  was  always  attempt- 
ing to  reconcile  the    contending  parties,  when  he  ought  to 
have  been  maintaining,  by  vigorous  measures,  the  cause  which 
he  approved.     He  was,  in  his  natural  temper,  so  averse  to 
contention,  that  his  spirits  were  depressed  more  than  became 
a  wise  man,  by  private  injuries  and  domestic  vexations.     On 
many  public  occasions  he  discovered  an  surprising  degree  of 
timidity.     When  under  the  immediate  apprehension  of  danger 
from  popular  tumult,  he  undertook  the  defence  of  Milo,  his 
panic  was  so  great  that  he  was  seized  with  an  universal  tre- 
mor, and  was  scarcely  able  to  speak;  so  that  his  client,  not- 
withstanding   his   innocence,  was    sentenced   to   exile.     His 
chief  delight  was  in  the  society  and  conversation  of  learned 
men  ;  and  many  elegant  specimens  remain  of  his  ability  in  re- 
lating, or  framing  philosophical  conferences.     But  in  his  pri- 
vate intercourse  with  his  friends,  as  well  as  in  the  forum  and 
the  senate,  he  discovered  a  degree  of  vanity  scarcely  to  be 
reconciled  with  true  greatness  of  mind.     From  these  circum- 
stances, compared  with  the  general  character  of  his  writings, 
it  seems  reasonable  to  conclude  that  Cicero's  chief  execellences 
were  fertility  of  imagination  and  readiness  of  invention ;  and 
that  his  talents  were  better  adapted  to  the  splendid  offices  of 
eloquence,  than  to  the  accurate  and  profound  investigations 
of  philosophy. 

*  B.  C.  43. 


112  CLEANTHES. 


CLEANTHES. 

CLEANTHES  was  a  native  of  Assos,  and  the  son  of  Phanias. 
He  was  originally  a  boxer.  And  he  came  to  Athens,  having 
but  four  drachmas,  as  some  people  say,  and  attaching  himself 
to  Zeno,  he  devoted  himself  to  Philosophy  in  a  most  noble 
manner  ;  and  he  adhered  to  the  same  doctrines  as  his  master. 

He  was  especially  eminent  for  his  industry,  so  that  as  he 
was  a  very  poor  man,  he  was  forced  to  undertake  mercenary 
employments,  and  he  used  to  draw  water  in  the  gardens  by 
night,  and  by  day  he  used  to  exercise  himself  in  philosophical 
discussions ;  on  which  account  he  was  called  Phreantles.* 
They  also  say  that  he  was  on  one  occasion  brought  before  a 
court  of  justice,  to  be  compelled  to  give  an  account  what  his 
sources  of  income  were  from  which  he  maintained  himself  in 
such  good  condition  ;  and  that  then  he  was  acquitted,  having 
produced  as  his  witness  the  gardener  in  whose  garden  he  drew 
the  water  ;  and  a  woman  who  was  a  mealseller,  in  whose  es- 
tablishment he  used  to  prepare  the  meal.  And  the  judges  of 
the  Areopagus  admired  him,  and  voted  that  ten  minse  should 
be  given  to  him  ;  but  Zeno  forbade  him  to  accept  them. 

They  also  say  that  Antigonus  presented  him  three  thousand 
drachmas.  And  once,  when  he  was  conducting  some  young 
men  to  some  spectacle,  it  happened  that  the  wind  blew  away 
his  cloak,  and  it  was  seen  then  that  he  had  nothing  on  under 
it;  on  which  he  was  greatly  applauded  by  the  Athenians. 
And  he  was  greatly  admired  by  them  on  account  of  this  cir- 
cumstance. 

They  also  say  that  Antigonus,  who  was  a  pupil  of  his,  once 
asked  him  why  he  drew  water ;  and  that  he  made  answer, 
u  Do  I  do  nothing  beyond  drawing  water  ?  Do  I  not  also 
dig,  and  do  I  not  water  the  land,  and  do  all  sorts  of  things  for 
the  sake  of  philosophy  ?"  For  Zeno  used  to  accustom  him  to 

*  That  is  a  well-drawer,  from  phrear  a  well,  and  antleo  to  draw  water. 


CLEANTHE8.  113 

this,  and  used  to  require  him  to  bring  him  an  obci  by  way  of 
tribute.  And  once  he  brought  one  of  the  pieooa  of  money 
which  he  had  collected  in  this  way,  into  the  middle  of  a 
company  of  his  acquaintances,  and  said,  "CU-iiithes  could 
maintain  even  another  Cleanthes  if  he  were  to  choose ;  but 
others  who  have  plenty  of  means  to  support  themselves,  seek 
for  necessaries  from  others ;  although  they  only  study  philos- 
ophy in  a  very  lazy  manner."  And,  in  reference  to  these 
habits  of  his,  Cleanthes  was  called  a  second  Heracles. 

He  was  then  very  industrious;  but  he  was  not  well  en- 
dowed by  nature,  and  was  very  slow  in  his  intellect.  On 
which  account  Timon  says  of  him :  — 

What  stately  ram  thus  measures  o'er  the  ground, 
And  master  of  the  flock  surveys  them  round  ? 
What  citizen  of  Assos,  dull  and  cold, 
Fond  of  long  words,  a  mouth-piece,  but  not  bold. 

And  when  he  was  ridiculed  by  his  few  pupils,  he  used  to 
bear  it  patiently. 

He  did  not  even  object  to  the  name  when  he  was  called  an 
ass ;  but  only  said  that  he  was  the  only  animal  able  to  bear 
the  burdens  which  Zeno  put  upon  him.  And  once,  when  he 
was  reproached  as  a  coward,  he  said,  "That  is  the  reason 
why  I  make  but  few  mistakes."  He  used  to  say,  in  justifica- 
tion of  his  preference  of  his  own  way  of  life  to  that  of  the 
rich,  "  That  while  they  were  playing  at  ball,  he  was  earning 
money  by  digging  hard  and  barren  ground."  And  he  very 
often  used  to  blame  himself.  And  once,  Ariston  heard  him 
doing  so,  and  said,  "Who  is  it  that  you  are  reproaching?" 
and  he  replied,  "  An  old  man  who  has  gray  hair,  but  no 
brains." 

When  some  one  once  said  to  him,  that  Arcesilaus  did  not  do 
what  he  ought,  "  Desist,"  he  replied,  "  and  do  not  blame  him ; 
for  if  he  destroys  duty  as  far  his  words  go,  at  all  events  he  es- 
tablishes it  by  his  actions."  Arcesilaus  once  said  to  him,  u  I 
never  listen  to  flatterers."  "  Yes,"  rejoined  Cleanthes,  "  I 

10* 


114  OLE  ANT  HES. 

flatter  you,  when  I  say  that  though  you  say  one  thing,  you  do 
another."  "When  some  one  once  asked  him  what  lesson  he 
ought  to  inculcate  on  his  son,  he  replied,  "  The  warning  of 
Electra:"- 

Silence,  silence,  gently  step. 

"When  a  Lacedaemonian  once  said  in  his  hearing,  that  labor 
was  a  good  thing,  he  was  delighted,  and  addressed  him : — 

Oh,  early  worth,  a  soul  so  wise  and  young 
Proclaims  you  from  the  sage  Lycurgus  sprung. 

Once  when  he  was  conversing  with  a  youth,  he  asked  him 
if  he  felt;  and  as  he  said  that  he  did,  "  Why  is  it  then,"  said 
Cleanthes,  "  that  I  do  not  feel  that  you  feel  ?" 

"When  Sositheus,  the  poet,  said  in  the  theatre  where  he  was 
present : — 

Men  whom  the  folly  of  Cleanthes  urges ; 

He  continued  in  the  same  attitude ;  at  which  the  hearers  were 
surprised,  and  applauded  him,  but  drove  Sositheus  away.  And 
when  he  expressed  his  sorrow  for  having  abused  him  in  this 
manner,  he  answered  him  gently,  saying,  "It  would  be  a  pre- 
posterous thing  for  Bacchus  and  Hercules  to  bear  being  ridi- 
culed by  the  poets  without  any  expression  of  auger,  and  for 
me  to  be  indignant  at  any  chance  attack."  He  used  also  to 
say,  "That  the  Peripatetics  were  in  the  same  condition  as 
lyres,  which  though  they  utter  sweet  notes,  do  not  hear  them- 
selves." And  it  is  said,  that  when  he  asserted  that,  on  the 
principles  of  Zeno,  one  could  judge  of  a  man's  character  by 
his  looks,  some  witty  young  men  brought  him  a  profligate  fel- 
low, having  a  hardy  look  from  continual  exercise  in  the  fields, 
and  requested  him  to  tell  them  his  moral  character  ;  and  he, 
having  hesitated  a  little,  bade  the  man  depart ;  and,  as  he  de- 
parted, he  sneezed,  "  I  have  the  fellow  now,"  said  Cleanthes, 
"  ho  is  a  debauchee." 
He  said  once  to  a  man  who  was  conversing  with  him  by 


OLEOBULUS.  115 

himself,  "You  are  not  talking  to  a  bad  man."  And  when 
some  one  reproached  him  with  his  old  age,  he  rejoined,  "  I 
too  wish  to  depart,  but  when  I  perceive  myself  to  be  in 
good  health  in  every  respect,  and  to  be  able  to  recite  and 
read,  I  am  content  to  remain."  They  say,  too,  that  he  used 
to  write  down  all  that  he  heard  from  Zeno  on  oyster  shells, 
and  on  the  shoulder-blades  of  oxen,  from  want  of  money  to 
buy  paper  with. 

He  died  in  the  following  manner :  His  gums  swelled  very 
much;  and,  at  the  command  of  his  physicians,  he  abstained 
from  food  for  two  days.  And  he  got  so  well  that  his  physicians 
allowed  him  to  return  to  all  his  former  habits  ;  but  he  refused, 
and  saying  that  he  had  now  already  gone  part  of  the  way,  he 
abstained  from  food  for  the  future,  and  so  died ;  being,  as 
some  report,  eighty  years  old,  and  having  been  a  pupil  of  Zeno 
nineteen  years.  "We  have  written  a  playful  epigram  on  him. 
also,  which  runs  thus  : — 

I  praise  Cleanthes,  but  praise  Pluto  more  ; 
Who  could  not  bear  to  see  him  grown  so  old, 
So  gave  him  rest  at  last  among  the  dead, 
Who'd  draw  such  loads  of  water  while  alive. 


CLEOBULUS. 

CLEOBTJLTTS  was  a  native  of  Lindus,  and  the  son  of  Evagoras. 
But  according  to  Duris  he  was  a  Carian ;  others  again  trace 
his  family  back  to  Hercules.  He  is  reported  to  have  been 
eminent  for  personal  strength  and  beauty,  and  to  have  stud- 
ied philosophy  in  Egypt.  He  had  a  daughter  named  Cle- 
obulina,  who  used  to  compose  enigmas  in  hexameter  verse. 
They  say  also  that  he  restored  the  temple  of  Minerva,  which 
had  been  built  by  Danaus. 

Cleobulus  composed  songs  and  obscure  sayings  in  verse,  to 


116  CLEOBULUS. 

the  number  of  three  thousand  lines,  and  some  say  that  it  was 
he  who  composed  the  epigram  on  Midas : — 

I  am  a  brazen  maiden  lying  here 
Upon  the  tomb  of  Midas.    And  as  long 
As  water  flows,  as  trees  are  green  with  leaves, 
As  the  sun  shines,  and  eke  the  silver  moon ; 
As  long  as  rivers  flow,  and  billows  roar, 
So  long  will  I  upon  this  much-wept  tomb, 
Tell  passers  by,  "  Midas  lies  buried  here." 

And  as  an  evidence  of  this  epigram  being  by  him,  they 
quote  a  song  of  Simonides,  which  runs  thus : — 

What  men  possessed  of  sense 

Would  ever  praise  the  Lindian  Cleobulus  ? 

Who  could  compare  a  statue  made  by  man 

To  overflowing  streams, 

To  blushing  flowers  01  spring, 

To  the  sun's  rays,  to  beams  o'  the  golden  morn, 

And  to  the  ceaseless  waves  of  mighty  ocean  ? 

All  things  are  trifling  when  compared  to  God. 

While  men  beneath  their  hands  can  crush  a  stone ; 

So  that  such  sentiments  can  only  come  from  fools. 

And  the  epigram  cannot  possibly  be  by  Homer,  for  he  lived 
many  years,  as  it  is  said,  before  Midas. 

There  is  also  the  following  enigma  quoted  in  the  Com- 
mentaries of  Pamphila,  as  the  work  of  Cleobulus  :- 

There  was  one  father,  and  he  had  twelve  daughters, 
Each  of  his  daughters  had  twice  thirty  children, 
But  most  unlike  in  figure  and  complexion  ; 
For  some  were  while,  and  others  black  to  view, 
And  though  immortal,  they  all  taste  of  death. 

And  the  solution  is,  "  the  year." 

Of  his  apophthegms,  the  following  are  the  most  celebrated  : 
Ignorance  and  talkativeness  bear  the  chief  sway  among  men. 
Opportunity  will  be  the  most  powerful.  Cherish  not  a 
thought.  Do  not  be  fickle,  or  ungrateful.  He  used  to  say, 
too,  that  men  ought  to  give  their  daughters  in  marriage 
while  they  were  girls  in  age,  but  women  in  sense;  as  indi- 


GRANTOR.  117 

eating  by  this  that  girls  ought  to  be  well  educated.  Another 
of  his  sayings  was,  that  one  ought  to  serve  a  friend  that  he 
may  become  a  greater  friend ;  and  an  enemy,  to  make  him  a 
friend.  And  that  one  ought  to  guard  against  giving  one's 
friends  occasion  to  blame  one,  and  one's  enemies  opportunity 
of  plotting  against  one.  Also,  when  a  man  goes  out  of  his 
house,  he  should  consider  what  he  is  going  to  do  ;  and  when 
he  comes  home  again,  he  should  consider  what  he  has  done. 
He  used  also  to  advise  men  to  keep  their  bodies  in  health  by 
exercise.  To  be  fond  of  hearing  rather  than  of  talking.  To 
be  fond  of  learning  rather  than  unwilling  to  learn.  To  speak 
well  of  people.  To  seek  virtue  and  eschew  vice.  To  avoid 
injustice.  To  give  1*he  best  advice  in  one's  power  to  one's 
country.  To  be  superior  to  pleasure.  To  do  nothing  by  force. 
To  instruct  one's  children.  To  be  ready  for  reconciliation 
after  quarrels.  Not  to  caress  one's  wife,  nor  to  quarrel  with 
her,  when  strangers  are  present ;  for  that  to  do  the  one  is  a 
sign  of  folly,  and  to  do  the  latter  is  downright  madness.  Not 
to  chastise  a  servant  while  elated  with  drink  ;  for  so  doing, 
one  will  appear  to  be  drunk  one's  self.  To  marry  from 
among  one's  equals  ;  for  if  one  takes  a  wife  of  a  higher  rank 
than  one's  self,  one  will  have  one's  connexions  for  one's  mas- 
ters. Not  to  laugh  at  those  who  are  being  reproved ;  for 
so  one  will  be  detested  by  them.  Be  not  haughty  when 
prosperous.  Be  not  desponding  when  in  difficulties.  Learn 
to  bear  the  changes  of  fortune  with  magnanimity.  Modera- 
tion is  the  best  thing. 


GRANTOR. 

GRANTOR,  a  native  of  Soli,  being  admired  very  greatly  in 
his  own  country,  came  to  Athens  and  became  a  pupil  of  Xeno- 
crates  at  the  same  time  with  Polemo.  And  he  left  behind 


118  GRANT  OR. 

him  memorials,  in  the  shape  of  writings,  to  the  number  of 
30,000  lines,  some  of  which,  however,  are  by  some  writers  at- 
tributed to  Arcesilaus. 

They  say  of  him  that  when  he  was  asked  what  it  was  that 
he  was  so  charmed  with  in  Polemo,  he  replied,  "  That  he  had 
never  heard  him  speak  in  too  high  or  too  low  a  key."  When 
he  was  ill  he  retired  to  the  temple  of  JEsculapius,  and  there 
walked  about,  and  people  came  to  him  from  all  quarters, 
thinking  that  he  had  gone  thither,  not  on  account  of  any  dis- 
ease, but  because  he  wished  to  establish  a  school  there. 

And  among  those  who  came  to  him  was  Arcesilaus,  wish- 
ing to  be  recommended  by  him  to  Polemo,  although  he  was 
much  attached  to  him.  But  when  he  got  well  he  became  a 
pupil  of  Polemo,  and  was  excessively  admired  on  that  account. 
It  is  said,  also,  that  he  left  his  property  to  Arcesilaus,  to  the 
amount  of  twelve  talents ;  and  that,  being  asked  by  him  where 
he  would  like  to  be  buried,  he  said : 

It  is  a  happy  fate  to  lie  entombed 
In  the  recesses  of  a  well-lov'd  land. 

It  is  said  also  that  he  wrote  poems,  and  that  he  sealed  them 
up  in  the  temple  of  Minerva,  in  his  own  country ;  and  Hesetetus 
the  poet  wrote  thus  about  him : — 

Grantor  pleased  men ;  but  greater  pleasure  still 

He  to  the  Muses  gave,  ere  he  aged  grew. 
Earth,  tenderly  embrace  the  holy  man, 

And  let  him  lie  in  quiet  undisturb'd. 

And  of  all  writers,  Grantor  admired  Homer  and  Euripides 
most ;  saying  that  the  hardest  thing  possible  was  to  write 
tragically  and  in  a  manner  to  excite  sympathy,  without  depart- 
ing from  nature ;  and  he  used  to  quote  this  line  out  of  the 
Bellerophon : — 

Alas  I  why  should  I  say  alas !  for  we 
Have  only  borne  the  usual  fate  of  man. 


CRATES 


119 


The  following  verses  of  Antagoras  the  poet  are  also  attrib- 
uted to  Grantor  ;  the  subject  is  love,  and  they  run  thus  : — 

My  mind  is  much  perplexed  ;  for  what,  O  Love, 
Dare  I  pronounce  your  origin  ?    May  I 
Call  you  chiefest  of  the  immortal  Gods, 
Of  all  the  children  whom  dark  Erebus 
And  Royal  Night  bore  on  the  billowy  waves 
Of  widest  Ocean  ?    Or  shall  I  bid  you  hail 
As  son  of  proudest  Venus  ?  or  of  Earth  ? 
Or  of  the  untamed  winds?  so  fierce  you  rove, 
Bringing  mankind  sad  cares,  yet  not  unmixed 
With  happy  good,  so  two  fold  is  your  nature. 

And  he  was  very  ingenious  at  devising  new  words  and  ex- 
pressions ;  accordingly,  he  said  that  one  tragedian  had  an  un- 
hewn voice,  all  over  bark ;  and  he  said  that  the  verses  of  a 
certain  poet  were  full  of  moths  ;  and  that  the  propositions  of 
Theophrastus  had  been  written  on  an  oyster  shell. 


CKATES. 

CRATES  was  a  Theban  by  birth  and  the  son  of  Ascondus. 
There  are  the  following  sportive  lines  of  his  quoted : — 

The  waves  surround  vain  Peres'  fruitful  soil, 

And  fertile  acres  crown  the  sea-born  isle ; 

Land  which  no  parasite  e'er  dares  invade, 

Or  lew'd  seducer  of  a  hapless  maid  ; 

It  bears  figs,  bread,  thyme,  garlic's  savory  charms, 

Gifts  which  ne'er  tempt  men  to  detested  arms, 

They'd  rather  fight  for  gold  than  glory's  dreams. 

There  is  also  an  account-book  of  his  much  spoken  of,  which 
is  drawn  up  in  such  terms  as  these  : — 

Put  down  the  cook  for  minas  half  a  score, 
Put  down  the  doctor  for  a  drachma  more : 
Five  talents  to  the  flatterer ;  some  smoke 
To  the  adviser,  an  obol  and  a  cloak 
For  the  philosopher ;  for  the  willing  nymph, 
A  talent 


120  CRATES. 

He  was  also  nicknamed  Door-opener,  because  he  used  to 
enter  every  house  and  give  the  inmates  advice.  These  lines, 
too,  are  his  : — 

All  this  I  learnt  and  pondered  in  my  mind, 
Drawing  deep  wisdom  from  the  Muses  kind, 
But  all  the  rest  is  vanity. 

There  is  a  line,  too,  which  tells  us  that  he  gained  from  phi- 
losophy : — 

A  peck  of  lupins,  and  to  care  for  nobody. 

This,  too,  is  attributed  to  him  : — 

Hunger  checks  love  ;  and  should  it  not,  time  does. 
If  both  should  fail  you,  then  a  halter  choose. 

He  flourished  about  the  hundred  and  thirteenth  Olympiad. 

Antisthenes,  in  his  Successions,  says  that  he,  having  once, 
in  a  certain  tragedy,  seen  Telephus  holding  a  date  basket,  and 
in  a  miserable  plight  in  other  respects,  betook  himself  to  the 
Cynic  philosophy ;  and  having  turned  his  patrimony  into 
money  (for  he  was  of  illustrious  extraction),  he  collected  three 
hundred  talents  by  that  means,  and  divided  them  among  the 
citizens.  And  after  that  he  devoted  himself  to  philosophy 
with  such  eagerness,  that  even  Philemon  the  comic  poet  men- 
tions him.  Accordingly  he  says  : — 

And  in  the  summer  he  'd  a  shaggy  gown, 
To  inure  himself  to  hardship;  in  the  winter 
He  wore  mere  rags. 

But  Diocles  says  that  it  was  Diogenes  who  persuaded  him 
to  discard  all  his  estate  and  his  flocks,  and  to  throw  his  money 
into  the  sea ;  and  he  says  further,  that  the  house  of  Orates 
was  destroyed  by  Alexander,  and  that  of  Hipparchia  under 
Philip.  And  he  would  very  frequently  drive  away  with  his 
staff  those  of  his  relations  who  oame  after  him,  and  endeav- 
ored to  dissuade  him  from  his  design ;  and  he  remained  im- 
movable. 

Demetrius,  the  Magnesian,  relates  that  he  deposited  his 
money  with  a  banker,  making  an  agreement  with  him,  that 


CRATES.  121 

if  his  sons  turned  out  ordinary  ignorant  people,  he  was  then 
to  restore  it  to  them ;  but  if  they  became  philosophers,  then 
he  was  to  divide  it  among  the  people,  for  that  they,  if  they 
were  philosophers,  would  have  no  need  of  anything. 

Pharorinus,  in  the  second  book  of  his  Commentaries,  relates 
a  witty  saying  of  his ;  for  he  says  that  once,  when  he  was 
begging  a  favor  of  the  master  of  a  gymnasium,  on  the  behalf 
of  some  acquaintance,  he  touched  his  thighs  ;  and  as  he  ex- 
pressed his  indignation  at  this,  he  said,  "  Why,  do  they  not 
belong  to  you  as  well  as  your  knees?"  He  used  to  say  that 
it  was  impossible  to  find  a  man  who  had  never  done  wrong, 
in  the  same  way  as  there  was  always  some  worthless  seed  in 
a  pomegranate.  On  one  occasion,  he  provoked  Nicodronms, 
the  harp-player,  and  received  a  black  eye  from  him ;  so  he 
put  a  plaster  on  his  forehead,  and  wrote  on  it,  "ISTicodromus 
did  this."  He  used  to  abuse  prostitutes  designedly,  for  the 
purpose  of  practising  himself  in  enduring  reproaches.  When 
Demetrius  Phalereus  sent  him  some  loaves  and  wine,  he  at- 
tacked him  for  his  present,  saying,  "  I  wish  that  the  fountains 
bore  loaves ;"  and  it  is  notorious  that  he  was  a  water  drinker. 

He  was  once  reproved  by  the  sediles  of  the  Athenians,  for 
wearing  fine  linen,  and  so  he  replied,  "  I  will  show  you  Theo- 
phrastus  also  clad  in  fine  linen."  And  as  they  did  not  believe 
him,  he  took  them  to  a  barber's  shop,  and  showed  him  to  them 
as  he  was  being  shaved.  At  Thebes  he  was  once  scourged  by 
the  master  of  the  gymnasium  (though  some  say  it  was  by  Eu- 
thycrates,  at  Corinth),  and  dragged  out  by  the  feet ;  but  he 
did  not  care,  and  quoted  the  lines  : — 

I  feel,  O  mighty  chief,  your  matchless  might, 
Dragged,  foot  first,  downward  from  th'  ethereal  height.* 

But  Diocles  says  that  it  was  by  Menedemus,  of  Eretria,  that 
he  was  dragged  in  this  manner,  for  that  as  he  was  a  handsome 
man,  and  supposed  to  be  very  obsequious  to  Asclepiades,  the 

*  This  is  a  parody  on  Homer.    II.  591.    Pope's  Version,  760. 

11 


122  CRATES. 

Phliasian,  Crates  touched  his  thighs,  and  said,  "Is  Asclepiades 
within?"  And  Menedernus  was  very  much  offended,  and 
dragged  him  out,  as  has  been  already  said ;  and  then  Crates 
quoted  the  above-cited  line. 

Zeno,  the  Cittiaean,  in  his  Apophthegms,  says  that  he  once 
sewed  up  a  sheep's  fleece  in  his  cloak,  without  thinking  of  it; 
and  he  was  a  very  ugly  man,  and  one  who  excited  laughter 
when  he  was  taking  exercise.  And  he  used  to  say,  when  he 
put  up  his  hands,  u  Courage,  Crates,  as  far  as  your  eyes  and 
the  rest  of  your  body  is  concerned ;  for  you  shall  see  those 
who  now  ridicule  you,  convulsed  with  disease,  and  envying 
your  happiness,  and  accusing  themselves  of  slothfulness." 
One  of  his  sayings  was,  "  That  a  man  ought  to  study  philoso- 
phy, up  to  the  point  of  looking  on  generals  and  donkey- 
drivers  in  the  same  light."  Another  was,  that  "  those  who 
live  with  flatterers  are  as  desolate  as  calves  when  in  the  com- 
pany of  wolves ;  for  that  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  are 
with  those  whom  they  ought  to  be,  or  their  own  kindred,  but 
only  with  those  who  are  plotting  against  them." 

When  he  felt  that  he  was  dying,  he  made  verses  on  him- 
self, saying : — 

You  're  going,  noble  hunchback,  you  are  going 
To  Pluto's  realms,  bent  double  by  old  age. 

For  he  was  hump-backed  from  age. 

Alexander  asked  him  u  Whether  he  wished  to  see  the 
restoration  of  his  country  ?"  To  which  he  replied,  "  What 
would  be  the  use  of  it  ?  For  perhaps  some  other  Alexander 
would  come  at  some  future  time,  and  destroy  it  again  :: — 

But  poverty,  and  dear  obscurity, 

Are  what  a  prudent  man  should  think  his  country." 

He  also  said  that  he  was 

A  fellow-countryman  of  wise  Diogenes, 
Whom  even  envy  never  had  attacked. 

Meuander,  in  his  Twin-Sister,  mentions  him  thus  : — 


CRATES.  123 

For  you  will  walk  with  me,  wrapped  in  your  cloak, 
As  his  wife  used  to  with  the  Cynic  Crates. 

He  gave  his  daughter  to  his  pupils,  as  he  himself  used  to 
say:— 

To  have  and  keep  on  trial  for  a  month. 

There  was  another  Crates,  who  was  the  son  of  Antigenes, 
and  of  the  Thriasian  burgh,  and  a  pupil  and  attached  friend 
of  Polerao.  He  was  also  his  successor  as  president  of  his 
school. 

And  they  benefited  one  another  so  much,  that  not  only  did 
they  delight  while  alive  in  the  same  pursuits,  but  almost  to 
their  latest  breath  did  they  resemble  one  another,  and  even 
after  they  were  both  dead  they  shared  the  same  tomb.  In 
reference  to  which  circumstance,  Antagoras  has  written  an 
epigram  on  the  pair,  in  which  he  expresses  himself  thus  : — 

Stranger,  who  passest  by,  relate  that  here 

The  godlike  Crates  lies,  and  Polemo  ; 
Two  men  of  kindred  nobleness  of  mind, 

Out  of  whose  holy  mouths  pure  wisdom  flowed ; 
And  they  with  upright  lives  did  well  display 

The  strength  of  all  their  principles  and  teaching. 

And  they  say,  too,  that  it  was  in  reference  to  this  that  Arcesi- 
laus,  when  he  came  over  to  them  from  Theophrastus,  said 
that  they  were  some  gods,  or  else  a  remnant  of  the  golden 
race ;  for  they  were  not  very  fond  of  courting  the  people, 
but  had  a  disposition  in  accordance  with  the  saying  of  Dio- 
nysodorus,  the  flute-player,  who  is  reported  to  have  said,  with 
great  exultation  and  pride,  that  no  one  had  ever  heard  his 
music  in  a  trireme  or  at  a  fountain,  as  they  had  heard  Ismenius. 
The  following  lines  were  written  by  a  philosopher  of  this 
name : — 

'T  is  not  one  town,  nor  one  poor  single  house, 
That  is  my  country  ;  but  in  every  land 
Each  city  and  each  dwelling  seems  to  me 
A  place  for  my  reception  ready  made. 


124  DEMETRIUS. 


DEMETRIUS. 

DEMETRIUS  was  a  native  of  Phalerus,  and  the  son  of  Pha- 
nostratus.  He  was  a  pupil  of  Theophrastus. 

As  a  leader  of  the  people  at  Athens,  he  governed  the  city 
for  ten  years,  and  was  honored  with  three  hundred  and  sixty 
brazen  statues,  the  greater  part  of  which  were  equestrian ; 
and  some  were  placed  in  carriages,  or  in  pair-horse  chariots, 
and  the  entire  number  were  finished  within  three  hundred 
days,  so  great  was  the  zeal  with  which  they  were  worked  at. 
He  governed  his  country  for  a  long  time  in  a  most  admirable 
manner.  For  he  aggrandized  the  city  by  increased  revenues 
and  by  new  buildings,  although  he  was  a  person  of  no  distinc- 
tion by  birth. 

He  lived  with  a  citizen  of  noble  birth,  named  Lamia,  as 
his  mistress.  Didymus,  in  his  Banquets,  says  that  he  was 
called  Beautiful  Eyed,  by  some  courtesan.  It  is  said  that  he 
lost  his  eye-sight  in  Alexandria,  and  recovered  it  again  by  the 
favor  of  Serapis ;  on  which  account  he  composed  the  paaans 
which  are  sung  and  spoken  of  as  his  composition  to  this  day. 

He  was  held  in  the  greatest  honor  among  the  Athenians, 
but  nevertheless,  he  found  his  fame  darkened  by  envy,  which 
attacks  everything ;  for  he  was  impeached  by  some  one  on 
a  capital  charge,  and,  as  he  did  not  appear,  he  was  condemned. 
His  accusers,  however,  did  not  become  masters  of  his  person, 
but  expended  their  venom  on  the  brass,  tearing  down  his 
statues,  and  selling  some  and  throwing  others  into  the  sea, 
and  some  they  cut  up  into  chamber-pots.  For  even  this  is 
stated.  And  one  statue  alone  of  him  is  preserved,  which  is 
in  the  Acropolis.  But  Pharorinus,  in  his  Universal  History, 
says  that  the  Athenians  treated  Demetrius  in  this  manner  at 
the  command  of  the  king ;  and  they  also  impeached  him  as 
guilty  of  illegality  in  his  administration.  But  Hermippus 
says,  that  after  the  death  of  Cassander,  he  feared  the  enmity 


DEMETRIUS.  125 

of  Antigonus,  and  on  that  account  fled  to  Ptolemy  Soter ;  and 
that  he  remained  at  his  court  for  a  long  time,  and,  among 
other  pieces  of  advice,  counselled  the  king  to  make  over  the 
kingdom  to  his  sons  by  Eurydice.  And  as  he  would  not 
agree  to  this  measure,  but  gave  the  crown  to  his  son  by  Ber- 
enice, this  latter,  after  the  death  of  his  father,  commanded 
Demetrius  to  be  kept  in  prison  until  he  should  come  to  some 
determination  about  him.  And  there  he  remained  in  great 
despondency ;  and  while  asleep  on  one  occasion,  he  was  bitten 
by  an  asp  in  the  hand,  and  so  he  died.  And  he  is  buried  in 
the  district  of  Busiris,  near  Diospolis ;  and  we  have  written 
the  following  epigram  on  him : — 

An  asp,  whose  tooth  of  venom  dire  was  full, 

Did  kill  the  wise  Demetrius. 
The  serpent  beamed  not  light  from  out  his  eyes, 

But  dark  and  lurid  hell. 

But  Heraclides,  in  his  Epitome  of  the  Successions  of  Sotion, 
says  that  Ptolemy  wished  to  transmit  the  kingdom  to  Phila- 
delphus,  and  that  Demetrius  persuaded  him  from  doing  so  by 
the  argument,  "  If  you  give  it  to  another,  you  will  not  have 
it  yourself."  And  when  Menander,  the  comic  poet,  had  an 
information  laid  against  him  at  Athens  (for  this  is  a  statement 
which  I  have  heard),  he  was  very  nearly  being  convicted,  for 
no  other  reason  but  that  he  was  a  friend  of  Demetrius.  He 
was,  however,  successfully  defended  by  Telesphorus,  the  son- 
in-law  of  Demetrius. 

In  the  multitude  of  his  writings,  and  the  number  of  lines 
which  they  amount  to,  he  exceeded  nearly  all  the  Peripatetics 
of  his  day,  being  a  man  of  great  learning  and  experience  on 
every  subject. 

When  he  was  told  that  the  Athenians  had  thrown  down  his 
statues,  he  said,  "  But  they  have  not  thrown  down  my  vir- 
tues, on  account  of  which  they  erected  them."  He  used  to 
say  tli at  "  The  eyebrows  were  not  an  insignificant  part  of  a 
rrvan,  for  that  they  wore  able  to  overshadow  the  whole  life." 

11* 


126  DEMETRIUS. 

Another  of  his  sayings  was,  that  "  It  was  not  Plutus  alone  who 
was  blincl,  but  Fortune  also,  who  acted  as  his  guide."  Another, 
that  "  Reason  had  as  much  influence  on  government,  as  steel 
had  in  war."  On  one  occasion,  when  he  saw  a  debauched 
young  man,  he  said,  u  There  is  a  square  Mercury  with  a  long 
robe,  a  belly,  and  a  beard."  It  was  a  favorite  saying  of  his, 
that  in  the  case  of  men  elated  with  pride  one  ought  to  cut 
something  off  their  height,  and  leave  them  their  spirit.  An- 
other of  his  apophthegms  was,  that  "  At  home  young  men 
ought  to  show  respect  to  their  parents,  and  in  the  streets  to 
every  one  whom  they  met,  and  in  solitary  places  to  them- 
selves." Another,  that  "  Friends  ought  to  come  to  others  in 
good  fortune  only  when  invited,  but  to  those  in  distress  of 
their  own  accord." 

Brucker  states  that  he  committed  suicide.  His  account  is 
that  Demetrius,  unable  to  support  the  repeated  misfortunes  he 
had  met  with,  put  an  end  to  his  life  by  the  bite  of  an  asp. 

This  fact  is  supported  by  the  concurrent  testimony  of  the 
ancients.  Hence  it  has,  not  without  reason,  been  questioned 
whether  credit  be  due  to  the  reports  of  Aristobulus,  Philo, 
Josephus,  and  others,  that  Demetrius  Phalereus  was  librarian 
to  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  and  that  it  was  by  his  advice  that 
this  prince  gave  orders  for  a  version  of  the  Jewish  scriptures 
from  the  Hebrew  into  the  Greek  language.  The  truth  is,  that 
the  whole  story  of  a  royal  mandate  for  this  undertaking  is 
destitute  of  satisfactory  proof,  and  probably  first  arose  from 
Jewish  vanity,  and  was  afterwards  hastily  adopted  by  the 
Christian  fathers.  It  is  most  probable  that  the  Septuagint 
version  was  the  private  labor  of  the  Jews  who  were  at  this 
time  resident  in  Egypt. 


DEMETRIUS,      OF      CORINTH.  127 

DEMETRIUS,    OF    CORINTH. 

THERE  was  another  of  the  same  name,  DEMETRIUS,  of  Corinth. 
So  free  and  severe  were  his  censures  of  the  fashionable  cus- 
toms and  vices  of  the  day,  that  he  was  banished  from  Rome 
by  Nero.  After  this  emperor's  death,  he  returned,  but,  by  his 
freedom  of  speech,  he  soon  offended  the  emperor  Vespasian, 
who  punished  him  by  depriving  him  of  his  liberty.  Seneca, 
who  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Demetrius,  speaks  of  him  in 
language  of  the  highest  praise  for  his  masculine  eloquence, 
sound  judgment,  intrepid  fortitude,  and  inflexible  integrity. 
"  Leaving,"  says  he,  "  the  nobles  clad  in  purple,  I  converse 
with  and  admire  the  half-naked  Demetrius ;  and  why  do  I 
admire  him,  but  because  I  perceive  that  in  the  rnidst  of  his 
poverty  he  wants  nothing !  "When  I  hear  this  excellent  man 
discoursing  from  his  couch  of  straw,  I  perceive  in  him  not  a 
preceptor  only,  but  a  witness  of  the  truth  ;  and  I  cannot 
doubt  that  Providence  has  endowed  him  with  such  virtues 
and  talents  that  he  might  be  an  example  and  a  monitor  to  the 
present  age." 

It  was  a  prominent  maxim  with  Demetrius,  that  "  It  is  bet- 
ter to  have  a  few  precepts  of  wisdom  always  at  hand  for  use, 
than  to  learn  many  things  which  cannot  be  applied  to  prac- 
tice." He  attended  Thraseas  Paatus  in  his  last  moments  be- 
fore his  execution,  and  fortified  his  mind  by  conversing  with 
him  upon  subjects  of  philosophy. 


DEMOCRITUS. 

DEMOORITTTS  was  a  native  of  Aldera,  or  as  some  say,  a  citi- 
zen of  Miletus.  He  was  a  pupil  of  some  of  the  Magi  and 
Chaldeans  whom  Xerxes  had  left  with  his  father  as  teachers, 
when  he  had  been  hospitably  received  by  them. 


128  DEMOCRITUS. 

He  was  one  of  three  brothers  who  divided  their  patrimony 
among  them ;  and  the  most  common  story  is,  that  he  took  the 
smaller  portion,  as  it  was  in  money,  because  he  required  money 
for  the  purpose  of  travelling;  though  his  brothers  suspected 
him  of  entertaining  some  treacherous  design.  Demetrius 
says,  that  his  share  amounted  to  more  than  a  hundred  talents, 
and  that  he  spent  the  whole  of  it. 

He  also  says,  that  he  was  so  industrious  a  man,  that  he  cut 
off  for  himself  a  small  portion  of  the  garden  which  surrounded 
his  house,  in  which  there  was  a  small  cottage,  and  shut  himself 
up  in  it.  And  on  one  occasion,  when  his  father  brought  him 
an  ox  to  sacrifice,  and  fastened  it  there,  he  for  a  long  time  did 
not  discover  it,  until  his  father  having  roused  him,  on  the  pre- 
text of  the  sacrifice,  told  him  what  he  had  done  with  the  ox. 

He  further  asserts,  that  it  is  well  known  that  he  went  to 
Athens,  and  as  he  despised  glory,  he  did  not  desire  to  be 
known  ;  and  that  he  became  acquainted  with  Socrates,  with- 
out Socrates  knowing  who  he  was.  "  For  I  came,"  says  he, 
"  to  Athens,  and  no  one  knew  me."  He  it  was  who  was  the 
author  of  the  saying,  "  Speech  is  the  shadow  of  action."  But 
Demetrius  Phalereus,  in  his  defence  of  Socrates,  affirms  that 
he  never  came  to  Athens  at  all.  And  that  is  a  still  stranger 
circumstance  than  any,  if  he  despised  so  important  a  city,  not 
wishing  to  derive  glory  from  the  place  in  which  he  was,  but 
preferring  rather  himself  to  invest  the  place  with  glory. 

And  Apollodorus,  of  Oyzicus,  says  he  was  intimate  with 
Philolaus;  "He  used  to  practise  himself,"  says  Antistheues, 
"in  testing  perceptions  in  various  manners ;  sometimes  retiring 
into  solitary  places,  and  spending  his  time  even  among  tombs." 

And  he  further  adds,  that  when  he  returned  from  his  travels, 
he  lived  in  a  most  humble  manner ;  like  a  man  who  had  spent 
all  his  property,  and  that  on  account  of  his  poverty,  he  was 
supported  by  his  brother  Damasus.  But  when  he  had  foretold 
some  future  event,  which  happened  as  he  had  predicted,  and 
had  in  consequence  become  famous,  he  was  for  all  the  rest  of 


DEMOCRITUS.  129 

his  life  thought  worthy  of  almost  divine  honors  by  the  gene- 
rality of  people.  And  as  there  was  a  law,  that  a  man  who 
had  squandered  the  whole  of  his  patrimony,  should  not  be  al- 
lowed funeral  rites  in  his  country,  Antisthenes  says,  that  he, 
being  aware  of  this  law,  and  not  wishing  to  be  exposed  to  the 
calumnies  of  those  who  envied  him,  and  would  be  glad  to  ac- 
cuse him,  recited  to  the  people  his  work  called  the  Great 
World,  which  is  far  superior  to  all  his  other  writings,  and  that 
as  a  reward  for  it  he  was  presented  with  five  hundred  talents ; 
and  not  only  that,  but  he  also  had  some  brazen  statues  erected 
in  his  honor.  And  when  he  died,  he  was  buried  at  the  pub- 
lic expense ;  after  having  attained  the  age  of  more  than  a 
hundred  years.  But  Demetrius  says,  that  it  was  his  relations 
who  read  the  Great  World,  and  that  they  were  presented  with 
a  hundred  talents  only ;  and  Hippobotus  coincides  in  this  state- 
ment. 

Athenodorus  tells  us,  that  once,  when  Hippocrates  came  to 
see  him,  he  ordered  some  milk  to  be  brought ;  and  that,  when 
he  saw  the  milk,  he  said  that  it  was  the  milk  of  a  black  goat, 
with  her  first  kid  ;  on  which  Hippocrates  marvelled  at  his 
accurate  knowledge. 

And  Hermippus  relates,  that  Democritus  died  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner:  he  was  exceedingly  old,  and  appeared  at 
the  point  of  death ;  and  his  sister  was  lamenting  that  he  would 
die  during  the  festival  of  the  Thesmophoria,*  and  so  prevent 
her  from  discharging  her  duties  to  the  Goddess ;  and  so  he 
bade  her  be  of  good  cheer,  and  desired  her  to  bring  him  hot 
loaves  every  day.  And,  by  applying  these  to  his  nostrils,  he 
kept  himself  alive  even  over  the  festival.  But  when  the  days 
of  the  festival  were  passed  (and  it  lasted  three  days),  then  he 
expired  without  any  pain,  as  Hipparchus  assures  us,  having 
lived  a  hundred  and  nine  years.  And  we  have  written  an  epi- 
gram upon  him  in  our  collection  of  poems  in  every  metre, 
which  runs  thus : — 

*  The  Thesmophoria  was  a  festival  in  honor  of  Ceres. 


130  DEMONAX. 

What  man  was  e'er  so  wise,  who  ever  did 
So  great  a  deed  as  this  Democritus? 
Who  kept  off  death,  though  present  for  three  days, 
And  entertained  him  with  hot  steam  of  bread 


DEMONAX. 

A  DISTINGUISHED  place  among  the  genuine  Cynics  who  were 
friends  to  virtue  appears  to  be  due  to  Demonax ;  whose  history, 
though  related  only  by  Lucian,  deserves  credit,  since  it  is  not 
probable  that  the  Satirist,  who  lived  at  the  same  period,  would 
have  ventured  to  give  a  false  narrative  of  a  well-known  char- 
acter, or  that  he  would  have  gone  so  far  out  of  his  usual  track 
of  satire,  merely  to  draw  a  fictitious  portrait  of  a  good  man. 
Demonax,  according  to  Lucian,  was  born  in  Cyprus.  His  parents 
were  possessed  of  wealth  and  rank ;  but  he  aspired  after 
higher  honors  in  the  study  of  wisdom,  and  the  practice  of 
virtue.  Early  in  life  he  removed  to  Athens,  where  he  after- 
wards continued  to  reside.  In  his  youth  he  was  intimately 
conversant  with  the  poets,  and  committed  the  most  valuable 
parts  of  their  writings  to  memory.  When  he  engaged  in  the 
study  of  philosophy,  he  did  not  lightly  skim  over  the  surface  of 

I 

subjects,  but  made  himself  perfect  master  of  the  several  sects. 
In  his  habit  and  manner  of  living,  Demonax  resembled  Diog- 
enes, and  is  therefore  properly  ranked  among  the  Cynics; 
but  he  imitated  Socrates  in  making  philosophy,  not  a  specu- 
lative science,  but  a  rule  of  life  and  manners.  He  never 
openly  espoused  the  doctrines  of  any  particular  sect,  but  took 
from  each  whatever  tenets  he  judged  most  favorable  to 
moral  wisdom.  Avoiding  all  ridiculous  singularity,  disgusting 
severity,  and  forbidding  haughtiness,  he  associated  freely  with 
all,  and  conversed  witli  sucli  graceful  ease,  tha-t  persuasion 
might  be  said  to  dwell  upon  his  lips.  He  possessed  the  happy 
art  of  rendering  even  reproof  acceptable ;  like  a  prudent  phy- 


DEM  ON  AX.  131 

sician,  curing  the  disease  without  fretting  the  patient.  His 
simple  manner  of  living  gave  him  perfect  independence  ;  and 
his  virtues  procured  him  such  a  degree  of  influence,  that  he 
was  often  employed  in  settling  domestic  dissensions.  His  phil- 
anthropy was  universal ;  and  he  never  withdrew  his  regard 
from  any,  but  such  as  would  not  be  persuaded  to  forsake  their 
vices.  So  perfect  was  his  equanimit}7,  that  nothing  ever  deeply 
affected  him,  except  the  sickness  or  death  of  a  friend.  He 
lived  nearly  to  the  age  of  a  hundred  years,  without  suffering 
pain  or  disease,  or  becoming  burdensome  to  any  one.  In  ex- 
treme old  age  he  went  from  house  to  house  wherever  he 
pleased,  and  was  everywhere  received  with  respect.  As  he 
passed  along  the  streets  the  sellers  of  bread  would  beg  him  to 
accept  of  some  from  their  hands ;  and  children  would  offer 
him  fruits,  and  call  him  father.  He  died  with  the  same  placid 
countenance  with  which  he  had  been  accustomed  to  meet  his 
friends.  The  Athenians  honored  his  body  with  a  public 
funeral,  which  was  attended  by  a  numerous  train  of  philoso- 
phers and  others,  who  lamented  the  loss  of  so  excellent  a  man. 
If  this  picture,  which  is  that  of  Lucian  in  miniature,  was  orig- 
inally taken  from  real  life,  the  biographer  had  some  reason  to 
speak  of  Demonax  as  the  best  philosopher  he  ever  knew. 

From  the  anecdotes  of  Demonax,  related  by  Lucian,  we 
shall  select  the  following : — Soon  after  Demonax  came  to 
Athens,  a  public  charge  was  brought  against  him  for  neglect- 
ing to  offer  sacrifice  to  Minerva,  and  to  be  initiated  into  the 
Eleusinian  mysteries.  Appearing  before  the  assembly  in  a 
white  garment,  he  pleaded  that  Minerva  did  not  stand  in  need 
of  his  offerings;  and  that  he  declined  initiation  into  the  mys- 
teries because,  if  they  were  bad  he  ought  not  to  conceal  them, 
and  if  they  were  good,  his  love  to  mankind  would  oblige  him. 
to  disclose  them ;  upon  which  he  was  acquitted.  One  of  his 
companions  proposing  to  go  to  the  temple  of  Esculapius,  to 
pray  for  the  recovery  of  his  son  from  sickness,  Demonax  said, 
"  Do  you  suppose  that  Esculapius  cannot  hear  you  as  well  from 


132  DIOGENES. 

this  place  ?"  Hearing  two  ignorant  pretenders  to  philosophy 
conversing,  and  remarking  that  the  one  asked  foolish  ques- 
tions, and  the  other  made  replies  which  were  nothing  to  the 
purpose,  he  said,  "  One  of  these  men  is  milking  a  he-goat, 
while  the  other  is  holding  a  sieve  under  him."  Advising  a 
certain  rhetorician,  who  was  a  wretched  declaimer,  to  perform 
frequent  exercises,  the  rhetorician  answered,  "I  frequently 
practise  by  myself."  "  No  wonder,"  replied  Demonax,  "  that 
you  are  so  bad  a  speaker,  when  you  practise  before  so  foolish 
an  audience."  Seeing  a  Spartan  beating  his  servant  unmerci- 
fully, he  said  to  him,  "  Why  do  you  thus  put  yourself  upon  a 
level  with  your  slave  ?"  When  Demonax  was  informed  that 
the  Athenians  had  thoughts  of  erecting  an  amphitheatre  for 
gladiators,  in  imitation  of  the  Corinthians,  he  went  into  the 
assembly,  and  cried  out,  "  Athenians,  before  you  make  this  re- 
solution, go  and  pull  down  the  Altar  of  Mercy." 


DIOGENES. 

DIOGENES  was  a  native  of  Sinope,  the  son  of  Tresius,  a 
money-changer.  And  Diocles  says  that  he  was  forced  to  flee 
from  his  native  city,  as  his  father  kept  the  public  bank  there, 
and  had  adulterated  the  coinage.  But  Eubulides,  in  his  essay 
on  Diogenes,  says,  that  it  was  Diogenes  himself  who  did  this, 
and  that  he  was  banished  with  his  father.  And,  indeed,  he 
himself,  in  his  Perdalus,  says  of  himself  that  he  had  adul- 
terated the  public  money.  Others  say  that  he  was  one  of  the 
curators,  and  was  persuaded  by  the  artisans  employed,  and 
that  he  went  to  Delphi,  or  else  to  the  oracle  at  Delos,  and 
there  consulted  Apollo  as  to  whether  he  should  do  what  people 
were  trying  to  persuade  him  to  do ;  and  that,  as  the  God  gave 
him  permission  to  do  so,  Diogenes,  not  comprehending  that 


DIOGENES.  133 

the  God  meant  that  he  might  change  the  political  customs* 
of  his  country  if  he  could,  adulterated  the  coinage  ;  and  being 
detected,  was  banished,  as  some  people  say,  but  as  other  ac- 
counts have  it,  took  the  alarm  and  fled  away  of  his  own 
accord.  Some  again,  say  that  he  adulterated  the  money  which 
he  had  received  from  his  father ;  and  that  his  father  was 
thrown  into  prison  and  died  there  ;  but  that  Diogenes  escaped 
and  went  to  Delphi,  and  asked,  not  whether  he  might  tamper 
with  the  coinage,  but  what  he  could  do  to  become  very  cele- 
brated, and  that  in  consequence  he  received  the  oracular  an- 
swer which  I  have  mentioned. 

When  he  came  to  Athens  he  attached  himself  to  Antis- 
thenes  ;  but  as  he  repelled  him,  because  he  admitted  no  one, 
he  at  last  forced  his  way  to  him  by  his  pertinacity.  And  once, 
when  he  raised  his  stick  at  him,  he  put  his  head  under  it,  and 
said,  "  Strike,  for  you  will  not  find  any  stick  hard  enough  to 
drive  me  away  as  long  you  continue  to  speak."  And  from 
this  time  forth  he  was  one  of  his  pupils ;  and  being  an  exile, 
he  naturally  betook  himself  to  a  simple  mode  of  life. 

And  when,  as  Theophrastus  tells  us  in  his  Megaric  Phi- 
losopher, he  saw  a  mouse  running  about  and  not  seeking  for  a 
bed,  nor  taking  care  to  keep  in  the  dark,  nor  looking  for  any 
of  those  things  which  appear  enjoyable  to  such  an  animal,  he 
found  a  remedy  for  his  own  poverty.  He  was,  according  to 
the  account  of  some  people,  the  first  person  who  doubled  up 
his  cloak  out  of  necessity,  and  who  slept  in  it ;  and  who  car- 
ried a  wallet,  in  which  he  kept  his  food  ;  and  who  used  what- 
ever place  was  near  for  all  sorts  of  purposes,  eating  and  sleep- 
ing, and  conversing  in  it.  In  reference  to  which  habit  he 
used  to  say,  pointing  to  the  Colonnade  of  Jupiter,  and  to  the 
Public  Magazine,  "  that  the  Athenians  had  built  him  places  to 
live  in."  Being  attacked  with  illness,  he  supported  himself 

*  The  passage  is  not  free  from  difficulty  ;  but  the  thing  which  misled 
Diogenes  appears  to  have  been  that  nomisma,  the  word  here  used,  meant  both 
"  a  coin,  or  coinage,"  and  "  a  custom." 

12 


134  DIOGENES. 

with  a  staff;  and  after  that  he  carried  it  continually,  not  in- 
deed in  the  city,  but  whenever  he  was  walking  in  the  roads, 
together  with  his  wallet. 

When  he  had  written  to  some  one  to  look  out  and  get  ready 
a  small  house  for  him,  as  he  delayed  to  do  it,  he  took  a  cask 
which  he  found  in  the  Temple  of  Cybele,  for  his  house,  as  he 
himself  tells  us  in  his  letters.  And  during  the  summer  he 
used  to  roll  himself  in  the  warm  sand,  but  in  winter  he  would 
embrace  statues  all  covered  with  snow,  practising  himself,  on 
every  occasion,  to  endure  anything. 

He  was  very  violent  in  expressing  his  haughty  disdain  of 
others.  He  said  that  the  schole  (school)  of  Euclides  was  chole 
(gall).  And  he  used  to  call  Plato's  diatribe  (discussions)  Icata- 
tribe  (disguise).  It  was  also  a  saying  of  his  that  the  Dionys- 
ian  games  were  a  great  marvel  to  fools ;  and  that  the  dema- 
gogues were  the  ministers  of  the  multitude.  He  used  likewise 
to  say,  "  that  when  in  the  course  of  his  life  he  beheld  pilots, 
and  physicians,  and  philosophers,  he  thought  man  the  wisest 
of  all  animals;  but  when  again  he  beheld  interpreters  of 
dreams,  and  soothsayers,  and  those  who  listened  to  them,  and 
men  puffed  up  with  glory  or  riches,  then  he  thought  that 
there  was  not  a  more  foolish  animal  than  man."  Another  of  his 
sayings  was,  "  that  he  thought  a  man  ought  oftener  to  provide 
himself  with  a  reason  than  with  a  halter."  On  one  occasion, 
when  he  noticed  Plato  at  a  very  costly  entertainment  tasting 
some  olives,  he  said,  u  O  you  wise  man !  why,  after  having 
sailed  to  Sicily  for  the  sake  of  such  a  feast,  do  you  not  now 
enjoy  what  you  have  before  you  ?"  And  Plato  replied,  "  By 
the  Gods,  Diogenes,  while  I  was  there  I  ate  olives  and  all  such 
things  a  great  deal."  Diogenes  rejoined,  "  What  then  did  you 
want  to  sail  to  Syracuse  for  ?  Did  not  Attica  at  that  time 
produce  any  olives  ?"  But  Phavorinus,  in  his  Universal  His- 
tory, tells  this  story  of  Aristippus.  At  another  time  he  was 
eating  dried  figs,  when  Plato  met  him,  and  he  said  to  him, 
"  You  may  have  a  share  of  these  ;"  and  as  he  took  some  and 


DIOGENES.  135 

ate  them,  he  said,  u  I  said  that  you  might  have  a  share  of 
them,  not  that  you  might  eat  them  all."  On  one  occasion 
Plato  had  invited  some  friends  who  had  come  to  him  from 
Dionysius  to  a  banquet,  and  Diogenes  trampled  on  his  carpets, 
and  said,  "  Thus  I  trample  on  the  empty  pride  of  Plato  ;"  and 
Plato  made  him  answer,  "  How  much  arrogance  are  you  dis- 
playing, O  Diogenes !  when  you  think  that  you  are  not  arro- 
gant at  all."  But  as  others  tell  the  story,  Diogenes  said, 
"  Thus  I  trample  on  the  pride  of  Plato  ;"  and  that  Plato  re- 
joined, u  "With  quite  as  much  pride  yourself,  O  Diogenes." 
Sotion  too,  in  his  fourth  book,  states,  that  the  Cynic  made  the 
following  speech  to  Plato  :  Diogenes  once  asked  him  for  some 
wine,  and  then  for  some  dried  figs  ;  so  he  sent  him  an  entire 
jar  full ;  and  Diogenes  said  to  him,  "  Will  you,  if  you  are 
asked  how  many  two  and  two  make,  answer  twenty  ?  In  this 
way,  you  neither  give  with  any  reference  to  what  you  are 
asked  for,  nor  do  you  answer  with  reference  to  the  question 
put  to  you."  He  used  also  to  ridicule  him  as  an  interminable 
talker.  When  he  was  asked  where  in  Greece  he  saw  virtuous 
men ;  "  Men,"  said  he,  "  nowhere ;  but  I  see  good  boys  in 
Lacedsemon."  On  one  occasion,  when  no  one  came  to  listen 
to  him  while  he  was  discoursing  seriously,  he  began  to  whistle. 
And  then  when  people  flocked  round  him,  he  reproached  them 
for  coming  with  eagerness  to  folly,  but  being  lazy  and  indiffer- 
ent about  good  things.  One  of  his  frequent  sayings  was, 
"  That  men  contended  with  one  another  in  punching  and 
kicking,  but  that  no  one  showed  any  emulation  in  the  pursuit 
of  virtue."  He  used  to  express  his  astonishment  at  the  gram- 
marians for  being  desirous  to  learn  everything  about  the  mis- 
fortunes of  Ulysses,  and  being  ignorant  of  their  own.  He 
used  also  to  say,  "  That  the  musicians  fitted  the  strings  to  the 
lyre  properly,  but  left  all  the  habits  of  their  soul  ill-arranged." 
And,  u  That  mathematicians  kept  their  eyes  fixed  on  the  sun 
and  moon,  and  overlooked  what  was  under  their  feet."  u  That 
orators  were  anxious  tA  speak  justly,  but  not  at  all  about 


136  DIOGENES. 

acting  so."  Also,  "  That  misers  blamed  money,  but  were  pre- 
posterously fond  of  it."  He  often  condemned  those  who 
praise  the  just  for  being  superior  to  money,  but  who  at  the 
same  time  are  eager  themselves  for  great  riches.  He  was  also 
very  indignant  at  seeing  men  sacrifice  to  the  Gods  to  procure 
good  health,  and  yet  at  the  sacrifice  eating  in  a  manner 
injurious  to  health.  He  often  expressed  his  surprise  at  slaves, 
who,  seeing  their  masters  eating  in  a  gluttonous  manner,  still 
do  not  themselves  lay  hands  on  any  of  the  eatables.  He 
would  frequently  praise  those  who  were  about  to  marry,  and 
yet  did  not  marry  ;  or  who  were  about  to  take  a  voyage,  and 
yet  did  not  take  a  voyage ;  or  who  were  about  to  engage  in 
affairs  of  state,  and  did  not  do  so;  and  those  who  Avere 
about  to  rear  children,  yet  did  not  rear  any ;  and  those  who 
were  preparing  to  take  up  their  abode  with  princes,  and 
yet  did  not  take  it  up.  One  of  his  sayings  was,  "  That  one  ought 
to  hold  out  one's  hand  to  a  friend  without  closing  the  fingers." 

Herrnippus,  in  his  Sale  of  Diogenes,  says  that  he  was  taken 
prisoner  and  put  up  to  be  sold,  and  asked  what  he  could  do  ; 
and  he  answered,  "  Govern  men."  And  so  he  bade  the  crier 
"  give  notice  that  if  any  one  wants  to  purchase  a  master,  there 
is  one  here  for  him."  When  he  was  ordered  not  to  sit  down, 
"It  makes  no  difference,"  said  he,  "for  fish  are  sold,  be  where 
they  may."  He  used  to  say,  that  he  "wondered  at  men 
always  ringing  a  dish  or  jar  before  buying  it,  but  being  con- 
tent to  judge  of  a  man  by  his  look  alone."  "When  Xeniades 
bought  him,  he  said  to  him  that  he  ought  to  obey  him  even 
though  he  was  his  slave  ;  for  that  a  physician  or  a  pilot  would 
find  men  to  obey  them  even  though  they  might  be  slaves." 

And  Eubulus  says,  in  his  essay  entitled,  The  Sale  of  Diog- 
enes, that  he  taught  the  children  of  Xeniades,  after  their 
other  lessons,  to  ride,  and  shoot,  and  sling,  and  dart.  And 
then  in  the  gymnasium  he  did  not  permit  the  trainer  to  exer- 
cise them  after  the  fashion  of  athletes,  but  exercised  them 
himself  to  just  the  degree  sufficient  to  give  them  a  good 


DIOGENES.  137 

color  and  good  health.  And  the  boys  retained  in  their  mem- 
ory many  sentences  of  poets  and  prose  writers,  and  of  Diog- 
enes himself;  and  he  used  to  give  them  a  concise  statement 
of  everything,  in  order  to  strengthen  their  memory ;  and  at 
home  he  used  to  teach  them  to  wait  upon  themselves,  con- 
tenting themselves  with  plain  food,  and  drinking  water. 
He  accustomed  them  to  cut  their  hair  close,  and  to  escheAv 
ornament,  and  to  go  without  tunics  or  shoes,  and  to  keep 
silent,  looking  at  nothing  except  themselves  as  they  walked 
along.  He  used  also  to  take  them  out  hunting ;  and  they 
paid  the  greatest  attention  and  respect  to  Diogenes  himself, 
and  spoke  well  of  him  to  their  parents. 

And  the  same  author  affirms,  that  he  grew  old  in  the  house- 
hold of  Xeniades,  and  that  when  he  died  he  was  buried  by 
his  sons.  And  that  while  he  was  living  with  him,  Xeniades 
once  asked  him  how  he  should  bury  him  ;  and  he  said,  "  On 
iny  face ;"  and  when  he  was  asked  why,  he  said,  "  Because  in 
a  little  while  everything  will  be  turned  upside  down."  And 
he  said  this  because  the  Macedonians  were  already  attaining 
power,  and  becoming  a  mighty  people  from  having  been  very 
inconsiderable.  Once,  when  a  man  had  conducted  him  into 
a  magnificent  house,  and  had  told  him  that  he  must  not  spit, 
after  hawking  a  little,  he  spit  in  his  face,  saying  that  he  could 
not  find  a  worse  place.  But  some  tell  this  story  of  Aristippus. 
Once  he  called  out,  "  Holloa,  men."  And  when  some  people 
gathered  round  him  in  consequence,  he  drove  them  away 
with  his  stick,  saying,  ';  I  called  men,  and  not  dregs."  They 
also  relate  that  Alexander  said,  that  if  he  had  not  been  Alex- 
ander, he  should  have  liked  to  be  Diogenes.  On  one  occasion 
he  went  half  shaved  into  an  entertainment  of  young  men, 
and  so  was  beaten  by  them.  And  afterwards  he  wrote  the 
names  of  all  those  who  had  beaten  him  on  a  white  tablet, 
and  went  about  with  the  tablet  round  his  neck,  so  as  to  ex- 
pose them  to  insult,  as  they  were  generally  condemned  and 

reproached  for  their  conduct. 

12* 


138  DIOGENES. 

He  used  to  say  that  he  was  "  the  hound  of  those  who  were 
praised ;  but  that  none  of  those  who  praised  them  dared  to  go 
out  hunting  with  him."     A  man  once  said  to  him,  "I  con- 
quered men  at  the  Pythian  games ;"  on  which  he  said,  "  I 
conquer   men,    but  you   only  conquer   slaves."     When  some 
people  said  to  him,  "  You  are  an  old  man,  and  should  rest  for 
the  remainder  of  your  life,"  "Why  so?"  replied  he,  "suppose 
I  had  run  a  long  distance,  ought  I  to  stop  when  I  was  near  the 
end,  and  not  rather  press  on  ?"     Once,  when  he  was  invited  to 
a  banquet,  he  said  that  he  would  not  come :  for  that  the  day 
before  no  one  had  thanked  him  for  coming.     He  used  to  go 
bare  foot  through  the  snow,  and  to  do  a  number  of  other  things 
which  have  been  already  mentioned.     Once  he  attempted  to 
eat  raw  meat,  but  he  could  not  digest  it.     On  one  occasion  he 
found  Demosthenes,  the  orator,  dining  in  an  inn ;  and  as  he 
was  slipping  away,  he  said  to  him,  "  You  will  now  be  ever  so 
much  more  in  an  inn."*     Once,  when   some  strangers  wished 
to  see  Demosthenes,  he  stretched  out  his  middle  finger,  and 
said,  "  This  is  the  great  demagogue  of  the  Athenian  people." 
When  some  one  had  dropped  a  loaf,  and  was  ashamed  to  pick 
it  up  again,  he  wishing  to  give  him  a  lesson,  tied  a  cord  round 
the  neck  of  a  bottle  and  dragged  it  all  through  the  Oeramicus. 
He  used  to  say,  that  he  imitated  the  teachers  of  choruses,  for 
that  they  spoke  too  loud,  in  order  that  the  rest  might   catch 
the  proper  tone.  Another  of  his  sayings  was,  that  "  most  men 
were  within  a  finger's  breadth  of  being   mad.     If,  then,  any 
one"  were  to  walk  along,  stretching  out  his  middle  finger,  he 
will  seem  to  be  mad ;  but  if  he  puts  out  his  fore  finger,  he  will 
not  be  thought  so."     Another  of  his  sayings  was,  that,  "  things 
of  great  value  were  often  sold  for  nothing,  and  vice  versa.     Ac- 
cordingly, that  a  statue  would  fetch  three  thousand  drachmas, 
and  a  bushel  of  meal  only  two  obols ;"  and  when  Xeniades  had 
bought  him,  he  said  to  him,  "  Come,  do  what  you  are  ordered 
to."    And  when  he  said — 

t  This  line  is  from  Euripides,  Medea, 


DIOGENES.  139 

"  The  streams  of  sacred  rivers  now 
Run  backwards  to  their  source !" 

"  Suppose,"  rejoined  Diogenes,  "you  had  been  sick,  and  had 
bought  a  physician,  could  you  refuse  to  be  guided  by  him,  and 

tell  him —     . 

"The  streams  of  sacred  rivers  now 
Run  backwards  to  their  source  ?" 

Once  a  man  came  to  him,  and  wished  to  study  philosophy  as 
his  pupil ;  and  he  gave  him  a  saperda  *  and  made  him  follow 
him.  And  as  he  from  shame  threw  it  away  and  departed,  he 
soon  afterwards  met  him  and,  laughing,  said  to  him,  "  A  sa- 
perda has  dissolved  your  friendship  forme."  But  Diocles  tells 
this  story  in  the  following  manner ;  that  when  some  one  said 
to  him,  "  Give  me  a  commission,  Diogenes,"  he  carried  him  off, 
and  gave  him  a  half-penny  worth  of  cheese  to  carry.  And  as 
he  refused  to  carry  it,  "  See,"  said  Diogenes,  "  a  half-penny 
•worth  of  cheese  has  broken  off  our  friendship." 

On  one  occasion  he  saw  a  child  drinking  out  of  its  hands, 
and  so  he  threw  away  the  cup  which  belonged  to  his  wallet, 
saying,  "  That  child  has  beaten  me  in  simplicity."  He  also 
threw  away  his  spoon,  after  seeing  a  boy,  when  he  had  broken 
his  vessel,  take  up  his  lentils  with  a  crust  of  bread.  And  he 
used  to  argue  thus, — "Everything  belongs  to  the  gods;  and 
wise  men  are  the  friends  of  the  gods.  All  things  are  in  com- 
mon among  friends ;  therefore  everything  belongs  to  wise 
men."  Once  he  saw  a  woman  falling  down  before  the  Gods 
in  an  unbecoming  attitude ;  he,  wishing  to  cure  her  of  her 
superstition,  as  Zoilus  of  Perga  tells  us,  came  up  to  her,  and 
said,  "  Are  you  not  afraid,  O  woman,  to  be  in  such  an  inde- 
cent attitude,  when  some  God  may  be  behind  you,  for  every 
place  is  full  of  him  ?"  He  consecrated  a  man  to  JEsculapius, 
who  was  to  run  up  and  beat  all  those  who  prostrated  them- 
selves with  their  faces  to  the  ground ;  and  be  was  in  the  habit 
of  saying  that  the  tragic  curse  had  come  upon  him,  for  that  he 
was — 

*  The  saperda  was  the  coracinus  (a  kind  of  fish)  when  salted. 


140  DIOGENES. 

Houseless  and  citiless,  a  piteous  exile 

From  his  dear  native  laud  ;  a  wandering  beggar, 

Scraping  a  pittance  poor  from  day  to  day. 

And  another  of  his  sayings  was,  that  he  "  opposed  con- 
fidence to  fortune,  nature  to  law,  and  reason. to  suffering." 
Once,  while  he  was  sitting  in  the  sun  in  the  Craneum,  Alex- 
ander was  standing  by,  and  said  to  him,  "  Ask  any  favor  you 
choose  of  me."  And  he  replied,  "  Cease  to  shade  me  from  the 
sun"- -as  some  express  it,  "  stand  out  of  my  light."  On  one 
occasion  a  man  was  reading  some  long  passages,  and  when  he 
came  to  the  end  of  the  book  and  showed  there  was  nothing 
more  written,  "Be  of  good  cheer,  my  friends,"  exclaimed 
Diogenes,  "  I  see  land."  A  man  once  proved  to  him  syllogis- 
tically  that  he  had  horns,  so  he  put  his  hand  to  his  forehead 
and  said,  "  I  do  not  see  them."  And  in  a  similar  manner  he 
replied  to  one  who  had  been  asserting  that  there  was  no  such 
thing  as  motion,  by  getting  up  and  walking  away.  When  a 
man  was  talking  about  the  heavenly  bodies  and  meteors, 
"  Pray,  how  many  days,"  said  he  to  him,  "is  it  since  you  came 
down  from  heaven  ?" 

A  profligate  eunuch  had  written  on  his  house,  "  Let  no  evil 
thing  enter  in."  "  Where,"  said  Diogenes,  "is  the  master  of 
the  house  going  ?"  After  having  anointed  his  feet  with  per- 
fume, he  said  that  the  ointment  from  his  head  mounted  up  to 
heaven,  and  that  from  his  feet  up  to  his  nose.  When  the 
Athenians  entreated  him  to  be  initiated  in  the  Eleusinian  mys- 
teries, and  said  that  in  the  shades  below  the  initiated  had  the 
best  seats;  "It  will,"  he  replied,  "be  an  absurd  thing  if 
jEgesilaus  and  Epaminondas  are  to  live  in  the  mud,  and  some 
miserable  wretches,  who  have  been  initiated,  are  to  be  in  the 
islands  of  the  blest."  Some  mice  crept  up  to  his  table,  and  he 
said,  "  See,  even  Diogenes  maintains  his  favorites."  Once, 
when  ho  was  leaving  the  bath,  and  a  man  asked  him  whether 
many  men  were  bathing,  he  said  "  No ;"  but  when  a  number 
of  people  came  out,  he  confessed  that  there  were  a  great  many. 


DIOGENES.  141 

When  Plato  called  him  a  dog,  he  said,  "  Undoubtedly,  for  I 
have  come  back  to  those  who  sold  me." 

Plato  defined  man  thus  :  u  Man  is  a  two-footed,  featherless 
animal,"  and  was  much  praised  for  the  definition;  so  Diogenes 
plucked  a  cock  and  brought  it  into  his  school,  and  said,  "  This 
is  Plato's  man."  On  which  account  this  addition  was  made  to 
the  definition,  "  "With  broad  flat  nails."  A  man  once  asked 
him  what  was  the  proper  time  for  supper,  and  he  made  an- 
swer, "  If  you  are  a  rich  man,  whenever  you  please  ;  and  if 
you  are  a  poor  man,  whenever  you  can."  When  he  was  at 
Megara  he  saw  some  sheep  carefully  covered  over  with  skins, 
and  the  children  running  about  naked ;  and  so  he  said,  "  It  is 
better  at  Megara  to  be  a  man's  ram,  than  his  son."  A  man 
once  struck  him  with  a  beam,  and  then  said,  "Take  care." 
"  What,"  said  he,  "  are  you  going  to  strike  me  again  ?"  He 
used  to  say  that  "the  demagogues  were  the  servants  of  the 
people  ;  and  garlands  the  blossoms  of  glory."  Having  lighted 
a  candle  in  the  day  time,  he  said,  "  I  am  looking  for  a  man." 
On  one  occasion  he  stood  under  a  fountain,  and  as  the  bystand- 
ers were  pitying  him,  Plato,  who  was  present,  said  to  them, 
"  If  you  wish  really  to  show  your  pity  for  him,  come  away ;" 
intimating  that  he  was  only  acting  thus  out  of  a  desire  for  no- 
toriety. Once,  when  a  man  had  struck  him  with  his  fist,  he 
said,  "O  Hercules,  what  a  strange  thing  that  I  should  be 
walking  about  with  a  helmet  on  without  knowing  it!" 

When  Midias  struck  him  with  his  fist  and  said,  "  There  are 
three  thousand  drachmas  for  you ;"  the  next  day  Diogenes  took 
the  cestus  of  a  boxer  and  beat  him  soundly,  and  said,  "  There 
are  three  thousand  drachmas  for  you."*  When  Lysias,  the 
drug-seller,  asked  him  whether  he  thought  that  there  were 
any  Gods :  "  How,"  said  he,  "  can  I  help  thinking  so,  when  I 
consider  you  to  be  hated  by  them  ?"  but  some  attribute  this 

*  This  is  probably  an  allusion  to  a  prosecution  instituted  by  Demosthenes 
against  Midias,  which  was  afterwards  compromised  by  Midias  paying  Demos- 
thenes thirty  minae,  or  three  thousand  drachmae. 


142  DIOGENES. 

reply  to  Theodoras.  Once  he  saw  a  man  purifying  himself  by 
washing,  and  said  to  him,  "  Oh,  wretched  man,  do  not  you 
know  that  as  you  cannot  wash  away  blunders  in  grammar  by 
purification,  so,  too,  you  can  no  more  efface  the  errors  of  a  life 
in  that  same  manner  ?" 

He  used  to  say  that  men  were  wrong  for  complaining  of 
fortune ;  for  that  they  ask  of  the  Gods  what  appear  to  be 
good  things,  not  what  are  really  so.  And  to  those  who  were 
alarmed  at  di  earns  he  said,  that  they  did  not  regard  what  they 
do  while  they  are  awake,  but  make  a  great  fuss  about  what 
they  fancy  they  see  while  they  are  asleep.  Once,  at  the 
Olympic  games,  when  the  herald  proclaimed,  "Dioxippus  is 
the  conqueror  of  men;"  he  said,  "He  is  the  conqueror  of 
slaves,  I  am  the  conqueror  of  men." 

He  was  greatly  beloved  by  the  Athenians ;  accordingly, 
when  a  youth  had  broken  his  cask  they  beat  him,  and  gave 
Diogenes  another.  And  Dionysius,  the  Stoic,  says  that  after 
the  battle  of  Ohseronea  he  was  taken  prisoner  and  brought  to 
Philip ;  and  being  asked  who  he  was,  replied,  "  A  spy,  to 
spy  upon  your  insatiability."  And  Philip  marvelled  at  him 
and  let  him  go.  Once,  when  Alexander  had  sent  a  letter  to 
Athens  to  Antipater,  by  the  hands  of  a  man  named  Athlias, 
he,  being  present,  said,  "  Athlias  from  Athlius,  by  means  of 
Athlias  to  Athlius.*  When  Perdiccas  threatened  that  he 
would  put  him  to  death  if  he  did  not  come  to  him,  he  replied, 
"  That  is  nothing  strange,  for  a  scorpion  or  a  tarantula  could 
do  as  much  :  you  had  better  threaten  me  that,  if  I  kept  away, 
you  should  be  very  happy."  He  used  constantly  to  repeat 
with  emphasis,  that  "  An  easy  life  had  been  given  to  man  by 
the  Gods,  but  that  it  had  been  overlaid  by  their  seeking  for 
honey,  cheese-cakes,  and  unguents,  and  things  of  that  sort." 
On  which  account  he  said  to  a  man,  who  had  his  shoes  put  on 
by  his  servant,  "  You  are  not  thoroughly  happy,  unless  he 

*  There  is  a  pun  upon  the  similarity  of  Athlias's  name  to  the  Greek  adjective 
athlios,  which  signifies  miserable. 


DIOGENES.  143 

also  wipes  your  nose  for  you  ;  and  he  will  do  this,  if  you  are 
crippled  in  your  hands."  On  one  occasion,  when  he  had  seen 
the  hieromnemones*  leading  off  one  of  the  stewards  who  had 
stolen  a  goblet,  he  said,  "  The  great  thieves  are  carrying  off 
the  little  thief."  At  another  time,  seeing  a  young  man  throw- 
ing stones  at  a  cross,  he  said,  "  Well  done,  you  will  be  sure  to 
reach  the  mark."  Once,  too,  some  boys  got  round  him  and 
said,  "  We  are  taking  care  that  you  do  not  bite  us ;"  but  he 
said,  "•  Be  of  good  cheer,  my  boys,  a  dog  does  not  eat  beef." 
He  saw  a  man  giving  himself  airs  because  he  was  clad  in  a 
lion's  skin,  and  said  to  him,  "  Do  not  go  on  disgracing  the 
garb  of  nature."  When  people  were  speaking  of  the  happi- 
ness of  Calisthenes,  and  saying  what  splendid  treatment  he 
received  from  Alexander,  he  replied,  "  The  man  then  is 
wretched,  for  he  is  forced  to  breakfast  and  dine  whenever 
Alexander  chooses."  When  he  was  in  want  of  money,  he 
said  that  he  reclaimed  it  from  his  friends  and  did  not  beg 
for  it. 

On  one  occasion  he  was  working  with  his  hands  in  the 
market-place,  and  said,  "  I  wish  I  could  rub  my  stomach  in 
the  same  way,  and  so  avoid  hunger."  When  he  saw  a  young 
man  going  with  some  satraps  to  supper,  he  dragged  him  away 
and  led  him  off  to  his  relations,  and  bade  them  take  care  of 
him.  He  was  once  addressed  by  a  youth  beautifully  adorned, 
who  asked  him  some  question ;  and  he  refused  to  give  him 
any  answer,  till  he  satisfied  him  whether  he  was  a  man  or  a 
woman.  And  on  one  occasion,  wrhen  a  youth  was  playing  the 
cottabus  in  the  bath,  he  said  to  him,  "  The  better  you  do  it, 
the  worse  you  do  it."  Once  at  a  banquet,  some  of  the  guests 
threw  him  bones,  as  if  he  had  been  a  dog ;  so  he,  as  he  went 
away,  put  up  his  leg  against  them  as  if  he  had  been  dog  in 
reality.  He  used  to  call  the  orators,  and  all  those  who  speak 
for  fame,  thrice  men,  instead  of  thrice  miserable.  He  said 

*  The  hieromnemones  were  the  sacred  secretaries  or  recorders  sent  by  each 
Amphictyonic  state  to  the  council  along  with  their  actual  deputy  or  minister. 


144  DIOGENES. 

that  "A  rich  but  ignorant  man,  was  like  a  sheep  with  a 
golden  fleece."  When  he  saw  a  notice  on  the  house  of  a 
profligate  man,  "  To  be  sold."  "  I  knew,"  said  he,  "  that  you 
who  are  so  incessantly  drunk,  would  soon  vomit  up  your 
owner."  To  a  young  man,  who  was  complaining  of  the  num- 
ber of  people  who  sought  his  acquaintance,  he  said,  "  Do  not 
make  such  a  parade  of  your  vanity." 

Having  been  in  a  very  dirty  bath,  he  said,  "  I  wonder  where 
the  people,  who  bathe  here,  clean  themselves."  When  all  the 
company  was  blaming  an  indifferent  harp-player,  he  alone 
praised  him,  and  being  asked  why  he  did  so,  he  said,  "  Be- 
cause, though  he  is  such  as  he  is,  he  plays  the  harp  and  does 
not  steal."  He  saluted  a  harp-player  who  was  always  left 
alone  by  his  hearers,  with  "  Good  morning,  cock ;"  and  when 
the  man  asked  him,  "  Why  so  ?"  he  said,  "  Because  you,  when 
you  sing,  make  every  one  get  up."  When  a  young  man  was 
one  day  making  a  display  of  himself,  he,  having  filled  the 
bosom  of  his  robe  with  lupins,  began  to  eat  them  ;  and  when 
the  multitude  looked  at  him,  he  said,  "  that  he  marvelled  at 
their  leaving  the  young  man  to  look  at  him."  And  when  a 
man,  who  was  very  superstitious,  said  to  him,  "  With  one 
blow  I  will  break  your  head."  "  And  I,"  he  replied,  "  with 
one  sneeze  will  make  you  tremble."  When  Hegesias  entreat- 
ed him  to  lend  him  one  of  his  books,  he  said,  "  You  are  a  silly 
fellow,  Hegesias,  for  you  will  not  take  painted  figs,  but  real 
ones ;  and  yet  you  overlook  the  genuine  practice  of  virtue, 
and  seek  for  what  is  merely  written."  A  man  once  reproached 
him  with  his  banishment,  and  his  answer  was,  "  You  wretched 
man,  that  is  what  made  me  a  philosopher."  And  when  on 
another  occasion,  some  one  said  to  him,  "  The  people  of 
Sinope  condemned  you  to  banishment,"  he  replied,  "And  I 
condemned  them  to  remain  where  they  were."  Once  he  saw 
a  man  who  had  been  a  victor  at  the  Olympic  games,  feeding 
sheep,  and  he  said  to  him,  "  You  have  soon  come  across  my 
friend  from  the  Olympic  games,  to  the  Nemean."  When  he 


DIOGENES.  145 

was  asked  why  athletes  are  insensible  to  pain,  he  said,  "  Be- 
cause they  are  built  up  of  pork  and  beef." 

He  once  asked  for  a  statue  ;  and  being  questioned  as  to  his 
reason  for  doing  so,  he  said,  "  I  am  practising  disappointment." 
Once  he  was  begging  of  some  one  (for  he  did  this  at  first  out 
of  actual  want),  he  said,  "  If  you  have  given  to  any  one  else, 
give  also  to  me  ;  and  if  you  have  never  given  to  any  one,  then 
begin  with  me."  On  one  occasion,  he  was  asked  by  the 
tyrant,  "  What  sort  of  brass  was  the  best  for  a  statue?"  and 
he  replied,  "That  of  which  the  statues  of  Harmodius  and 
Aristogiton  are  made."  When  he  was  asked  how  Dionysius 
treats  his  friends,  he  said,  "  Like  bags ;  those  which  are  full 
he  hangs  up,  and  those  which  are  empty  he  throws  away." 
A  man  who  was  lately  married  put  an  inscription  on  his 
house,  "  Hercules  Callinicus,  the  son  of  Jupiter,  lives  here ; 
let  no  evil  enter."  And  so  Diogenes  wrote  in  addition,  "  An 
alliance  is  made  after  the  war  is  over."  He  used  to  say  that 
covetousness  was  the  metropolis  of  all  evils.  Seeing  on  one 
occasion  a  profligate  man  in  an  inn  eating  olives,  he  said,  "  If 
you  had  dined  thus,  you  would  not  have  supped  thus."  One 
of  his  apophthegms  was,  that  good  men  were  the  images  of 
the  Gods ;  another,  that  love  was  the  business  of  those  who 
had  nothing  to  do.  When  he  was  asked  what  was  miserable 
in  life,  he  answered,  "  An  indigent  old  man."  And  when 
the  question  was  put  to  him,  what  beast  inflicts  the  worst 
bite,  he  said,  "  Of  wild  beasts  the  sycophant,  and  of  tame  ani- 
mals the  flatterer.'"1 

On  one  occasion  he  saw  two  Centaurs  very  badly  painted ; 
he  said,  "  Which  of  the  two  is  the  worst  ?"*  He  used  to  say 
that  a  speech,  the  object  of  which  was  solely  to  please,  was  a 
honeyed  halter.  He  called  the  belly,  the  Oharybdis  of  life. 
Having  heard  once  that  Didymon  the  adulturer,  had  been 
caught  in  the  fact,  he  said,  u  He  deserves  to  be  hung  by  his 

*  Chiron  was  also  the  most  celebrated  of  the  Centaurs,  the  tutor  of  Achilles, 

13 


146  DIOGENES. 

name."*  When  the  question  Avas  put  to  him,  why  is  gold  of 
a  pale  color,  he  said,  "  Because  it  has  so  many  people  plotting 
against  it."  When  he  saw  a  woman  in  a  litter,  he  said,  "  The 
cage  is  not  suited  to  the  animal."  And  seeing  a  runaway 
slave  sitting  on  a  well,  he  said,  "  My  boy,  take  care  you  do 
not  fall  in."  Another  time,  he  saw  a  little  boy  who  was  a 
stealer  of  clothes  from  the  baths,  and  said,  "  Are  you  going 
for  unguents,  or  for  other  garments."  Seeing  some  women 
hanging  on  some  olive  trees,  he  said,  "  I  wish  every  tree  bore 
similar  fruit."  At  another  time,  he  saw  a  clothes'  stealer,  and 
addressed  him  thus :  — 

What  moves  thee,  say,  when  sleep  has  clos'd  the  sight, 
To  roam  the  silent  fields  in  dead  of  night  ? 
Art  thou  some  wretch  by  hopes  of  plunder  led, 
Through  heaps  of  coinage  to  despoil  the  dead.f 

When  he  was  asked  whether  he  had  any  girl  or  boy  to  wait 
on  him,  he  said,  "  No."  And  as  his  questioner  asked  further, 
44 If  then  you  die,  who  will  bury  you?"  He  replied,  u  Who- 
ever wants  my  house."  Seeing  a  handsome  youth  sleeping 
without  any  protection,  he  nudged  him,  and  said,  "Wake 

Mix'd  with  the  vulgar  shall  thy  fate  be  found, 
Pierc'd  in  the  back,  a  vile  dishonest  wound."}: 

And  he  addressed  a  man  who  was  buying  delicacies  at  a 
great  expense : — 

Not  long,  my  son,  will  you  on  earth  remain, 
If  such  your  dealings .§ 

When  Plato  was  discoursing  about  his  "  ideas,"  and  using 
the  nouns  "tableness"  and  "cupness;"  "I,  O  Plato!"  inter- 
rupted Diogenes,  "  see  a  table  and  a  cup,  but  I  see  no  table- 
ness  or  cupuess."  Plato  made  answer,  u  That  is  natural 

*  There  is  a  pun  intended  here. 

t  This  is  taken  from  Horner,  II.    Pope's  Version,  455. 
$  This  is  also  from  Homer,  II.     Pope's  Version,  120. 
§  This  is  a  parody  011  Homer. 


DIOGENES.  147 

enough,  for  you  have  eyes,  by  which  a  cup  and  a  table  are 
contemplated  ;  but  you  have  not  intellect,  by  which  tableness 
and  cupness  are  seen." 

On  one  occasion,  he  was  asked  by  a  certain  person,  "  What 
sort  of  a  man,  O  Diogenes,  do  you  think  Socrates  ?"  and  he 
said,  "  A  madman."  Another  time,  the  question  was  put  to 
him,  when  a  man  ought  to  marry  ?  And  his  reply  was, 
"Young  men  ought  not  to  marry  yet,  and  old  men  never 
ought  to  marry  at  all."  When  asked  what  he  would  take  to 
let  a  man  give  him  a  blow  on  the  head,  he  replied,  "A  hel- 
met." Seeing  a  youth  smartening  himself  up  very  carefully, 
he  said  to  him,  u  If  you  are  doing  that  for  men,  you  are  mis- 
erable ;  and  if  for  women,  you  are  profligate."  Once  he  saw 
a  youth  blushing,  and  addressed  him,  "  Courage,  my  boy,  that 
is  the  complexion  of  virtue."  Having  once  listened  to  two 
lawyers,  he  condemned  them  both,  saying,  "  That  the  one  had 
stolen  the  thing  in  question,  and  that  the  other  had  not  lost 
it."  When  asked  what  wine  he  liked  to  drink,  he  said,  "  That 
which  belongs  to  another."  A  man  said  to  him  one  day, 
"Many  people  laugh  at  you."  "  But  I,"  he  replied,  "  am  not 
laughed  down."  When  a  man  said  to  him,  that  it  was  a  bad 
thing  to  live;  " Not  to  live,"  said  he,  "but  to  live  badly." 
When  some  people  were  advising  him  to  make  search  for  a 
slave  who  had  run  away,  he  said,  "  It  would  be  a  very  absurd 
thing  for  Manes  to  be  able  to  live  without  Diogenes,  but  not 
for  Diogenes  to  be  able  to  live  without  Manes."  When  he 
was  dining  on  olives,  a  cheese-cake  was  brought  in,  on  which 
he  threw  the  olive  away,  saying : — 

Keep  well  aloof,  O  stranger,  from  all  tyrants.* 

And  presently  he  added : — 

He  drove  the  olive  off.f 

h 

*  This  is  a  line  of  the  Phrenissae  of  Euripides,  v.  40. 

tThe  pun  here  is  on  the  similarity  of  the  noun  elaan,  an  olive,  to  the  verb 
elaan,  to  drive. 


148  DIOGENES. 

When  lie  was  asked  what  sort  of  a  dog  he  was,  he  replied, 
"  "When  hungry,  I  am  a  dog  of  Melita  ;  when  satisfied,  a  Mo- 
lossian ;  a  sort  which  most  of  those  who  praise  do  not  like  to 
take  out  hunting  with  them,  because  of  the  labor  of  keeping 
up  with  them  ;  and  in  like  manner,  you  cannot  associate  with 
me,  from  fear  of  the  pain  I  give  you."  The  question  was  put 
to  him,  whether  wise  men  ate  cheese-cakes,  and  he  replied, 
u  They  eat  everything,  just  as  the  rest  of  mankind."  When 
asked  why  people  give  to  beggars  and  not  to  philosophers,  he 
said,  "  Because  they  think  it  possible  that  they  themselves 
may  become  lame  and  blind,  but  they  do  not  expect  ever  to 
turn  out  philosophers."  He  once  begged  of  a  covetous  man, 
and  as  he  was  slow  to  give,  he  said,  u  Man,  I  am  asking  you 
for  something  to  maintain  me,  and  not  to  bury  me."  When 
some  one  reproached  him  for  having  tampered  with  the  coin- 
age, he  said,  "  There  was  a  time  when  I  was  such  a  person  as 
you  are  now  ;  but. there  never  was  when  you  were  such  as  I 
am  now,  and  never  will  be."  And  to  another  person  who 
reproached  him  on  the  same  grounds,  he  said,  "  There  were 
times  when  I  did  what  I  did  not  wish  to,  but  that  is  not  the 
case  now."  When  he  went  to  Myndus,  he  saw  some  very 
large  gates,  but  the  city  was  a  small  one,  and  so  he  said,  "  Oh 
men  of  Myndus,  shut  your  gates,  lest  your  city  should  steal 
out."  On  one  occasion  he  saw  a  man  who  had  been  detected 
stealing  purple,  and  so  he  said  : — 

A  purple  death,  and  mighty  fate  o'ertook  him.* 

When  Craterus  entreated  him  to  come  and  visit  him,  he 
said,  "  I  would  rather  lick  up  salt  at  Athens,  than  enjoy  a 
luxurious  table  with  Craterus."  On  one  occasion,  he  met 
Anaximenes,  the  orator,  who  was  a  fat  man,  and  thus  accosted 
him :  "  Pray  give  us,  who  are  poor,  some  of  your  belly  ;  for 
by  so  doing  you  will  be  relieved  yourself,  and  you  will  assist 
us."  And  once,  when  he  was  discussing  some  point,  Diogenes 

*  This  line  occurs  in  Horn.  Iliad. 


DIOGENES,  149 

held  up  a  piece  of  salt-fish,  and  drew  off  the  attention  of  his 
hearers ;  and  as  Anaximenes  was  indignant  at  this,  he  said, 
"  See,  one  pennyworth  of  salt-fish  has  put  an  end  to  the  lec- 
ture of  Anaximenes."  Being  once  reproached  for  eating  in 
the  market-place,  he  made  answer,  "  I  did,  for  it  was  in  the 
market-place  that  I  was  hungry."  Some  authors  also  attribute 
the  following  repartee  to  him :  Plato  saw  him  washing  veg- 
etables, and  so  coming  up  to  him,  he  quietly  accosted  him 
thus :  "  If  you  had  paid  court  to  Dionysius,  you  would  not 
have  been  washing  vegetables."  "And,"  he  replied  with 
equal  quietness,  "  if  you  had  washed  vegetables,  you  would 
never  have  paid  court  to  Dionysius."  When  a  man  said 
to  him  once,  "  Most  people  laugh  at  you ;"  "  And  /Very 
likely,"  he  replied,  "4he  asses  laugh  at  them  ;  but  they  do  not 
regard  the  asses,  neither  do  I  regard  them."  Once  he  saw  a 
youth  studying  philosophy,  and  said  to  him,  "  Well  done ;  in- 
asmuch as  you  are  leading  those  who  admire  your  person  to 
contemplate  the- beauty  of  your  mind." 

A  certain  person  was  admiring  the  offerings  in  the  temple 
at  Samothrace,*  and  he  said  to  him,  "  They  would  have  been 
much  more  numerous,  if  those  who  were  lost  had  offered  them, 
instead  of  those  who  were  saved ;"  but  some  attribute  this 
speech  to  Diagoras  the  Thelian.  Once  he  saw  a  handsome 
youth  going  to  a  banquet,  and  said  to  him,  "  You  will  come 
back  worse  (cheiron\) ;"  and  when  he  the  next  day  after  the 
banquet  said  to  him,  "  I  have  left  the  banquet,  and  was  no 
worse  for  it ;"  he  replied,  u  You  were  not  Chiron,  but  Eury- 
tion."J  He  was  begging  once  of  a  very  ill-tempered  man, 
and  as  he  said  to  him,  u  If  you  can  persuade  me,  I  will  give 


*  The  Samothracian  Gods  were  Gods  of  the  sea,  and  it  was  customary  for 
those  who  had  been  saved  from  shipwreck  to  make  them  an  offering  of  some 
part  of  what  they  had  saved  ;  and  of  their  hair,  if  they  had  saved  nothing  but 
their  lives. 

t  Cheiron  signifies  worse,  and  was  also  a  name  of  one  of  the  Centaurs. 

%  Eurytion  was  another  of  the  Centaurs,  who  was  killed  by  Hercules. 

13* 


150  DIOGENES. 

you  something ;"  he  replied,  "  If  I  could  persuade  you,  I 
would  beg  you  to  hang  yourself."  He  was  on  one  occasion 
returning  from  Lacedgemon  to  Athens ;  and  when  some  one 
asked  him,  "  Whither  are  you  going,  and  whence  do  you 
come  ?"  he  said,  "  I  am  going  from  the  men's  apartments  to 
the  women's."  Another  time  he  was  returning  from  the 
Olympic  games,  and  when  some  one  asked  him  whether  there 
had  heen  a  great  multitude  there,  he  said,  "  A  great  multitude, 
but  very  few  men."  He  used  to  say  that  "  Debauched  men 
resembled  figs  growing  on  a  precipice  ;  the  fruit  of  which  is 
not  tasted  by  men,  but  devoured  by  crows  and  vultures." 
When  Phryne  had  dedicated  a  golden  statue  of  Venus  at 
Delphi,  he  wrote  upon  it,  "  From  the  profligacy  of  the  Greeks." 

Once  Alexander  the  Great  came  a*d  stood  by  him,  and 
said,  "  I  am  Alexander,  the  great  king."  "  And  I,"  said  he, 
"  am  Diogenes  the  dog."  And  when  he  was  asked  to  what 
actions  of  his  it  was  owing  that  he  was  called  a  dog,  he  said, 
"  Because  I  fawn  upon  those  who  give  me  anything,  and  bark 
at  those  who  give  me  nothing,  and  bite  the  rogues."  On  one 
occasion  he  was  gathering  some  of  the  fruit  of  a  fig-tree,  and 
when  the  man  who  was  guarding  it  told  him  a  man  hung  him- 
self on  this  tree  the  other  day,  "  I,  then,"  said  he,  "  will  now 
purify  it."  Once  he  saw  a  man  who  had  been  a  conqueror  at 
the  Olympic  games  looking  very  often  at  a  courtesan  ;  "  Look," 
said  he,  "at  that  warlike  ram,  who  is  taken  prisoner  by  the 
first  girl  he  meets."  One  of  his  sayings  was,  that  good-look- 
ing courtesans  were  like  poisoned  mead. 

On  one  occasion  he  was  eating  his  dinner  in  the  market- 
place, and  the  bystanders  kept  constantly  calling  out  "  Dog  ;" 
but  he  said,  "  It  is  you  who  are  the  dogs,  who  stand  around 
me  while  I  am  at  dinner."  When  two  effeminate  fellows  were 
getting  out  of  his  way,  he  said,  "  Do  not  be  afraid,  a  dog  does 
not  eat  beetroot."  Being  once  asked  about  a  debauched  boy, 
as  to  what  country  he  came  from,  he  said,  "  He  is  a  Tegean."* 

*  This  is  a  pun  on  the  similarity  of  the  sound,  Tecjea,  to  legos,  a  brothel. 


DIOGENES.  151 

Seeing  an  unskilful  wrestler  professing  to  heal  a  man  lie  said, 
"  What  are  you  about,  are  you  in  hopes  now  to  overthrow 
those  who  formerly  conquered  you  ?"  On  one  occasion  he 
saw  the  son  of  a  courtesan  throwing  a  stone  at  a  crowd,  and 
said  to  him,  "  Take  care,  lest  you  hit  your  father."  When  a 
boy  showed  him  a  sword  that  he  had  received  from  one  to 
whom  he  had  done  some  discreditable  service,  he  told  him, 
"  The  sword  is  a  good  sword,  but  the  handle  is  infamous." 
And  when  some  people  were  praising  a  man  who  had  given 
him  something,  he  said  to  them,  "And  do  not  you  praise  me 
who  was  worthy  to  receive  it?"  He  was  asked  by  some  one 
to  give  him  back  his  eloak;  but  he  replied,  "If  you  gave  it 
me,  it  is  mine ;  and  if  you  only  lent  it  me,  I  am  using  it."  A 
supposititious  son  of  somebody  once  said  to  him,  that  he  had 
gold  in  his  cloak ;  "  ISTo  doubt,"  said  he,  "  that  is  the  very 
reason  why  I  sleep  with  it  under  my  head."  When  he  was 
asked  what  advantage  he  had  derived  from  philosophy,  he  re- 
plied, "  If  no  other,  at  least  this,  that  I  am  prepared  for  every 
kind  of  fortune."  The  question  was  put  to  him  what  country- 
man he  was,  and  he  replied,  "  A  Citizen  of  the  world."  Some 
men  were  sacrificing  to  the  Gods  to  prevail  on  them  to  send 
them  sons,  and  he  said,  "  And  do  you  not  sacrifice  to  procure 
sons  of  a  particular  character?"  Once  he  was  asking  the 
president  of  a  society  for  a  contribution,  and  said  to  him : — 

"  Spoil  all  the  rest  but  keep  your  hands  from  Hector." 

He  used  to  say  that  courtesans  were  the  queens  of  kings ; 
for  that  they  asked  them  for  whatever  they  chose.  When 
the  Athenians  had  voted  that  Alexander  was  Bacchus,  he 
said  to  them,  "  Vote,  too,  that  I  am  Serapis."  When  a  man 
reproached  him  for  going  into  unclean  places,  he  said,  "  The 
sun,  too,  penetrates  into  privies,  but  is  not  polluted  by  them." 
When  supping  in  a  temple,  as  some  dirty  loaves  were  set  be- 
fore him,  he  took  them  up  and  threw  them  away,  saying  that 
nothing  dirty  ought  to  come  into  a  temple ;  and  when  some 


152  DIOGENES. 

one  said  to  him,  "  You  philosophize  without  being  possessed 
of  any  knowledge;"  he  said,  "If  I  only  pretend  to  wisdom, 
that  is  philosophizing."  A  man  once  brought  him  a  boy,  and 
said  that  he  was  a  very  clever  child,  and  one  of  an  admirable 
disposition.  "What,  then,"  said  Diogenes,  "does  he  want 
of  me."  He  used  to  say  that  those  who  utter  virtuous  senti- 
ments, but  do  not  do  them,  are  no  better  than  harps,  for  that 
a  harp  has  no  hearing  or  feeling.  Once  when  he  saw  a 
young  man  putting  on  effeminate  airs,  he  said  to  him,  "  Are 
you  not  ashamed  to  have  worse  plans  for  yourself  than  nature 
had  for  you?  For  she  has  made  you  a  man,  but  you  are 
trying  to  force  yourself  to  be  a  woman."  When  he  saw  an 
ignorant  man  tuning  a  psaltery,  he  said  to  him,  "  Are  you  not 
ashamed  to  be  arranging  proper  sounds  on  a  wooden  instru- 
ment, and  not  arranging  your  soul  to  a  proper  life  ?"  When 
a  man  said  to  him,  "  I  am  not  calculated  for  philosophy,"  he 
said,  "Why  then  do  you  live,  if  you  have  no  desire  to  live 
properly  ?"  To  a  man  who  treated  his  father  with  contempt, 
he  said,  "  Are  you  not  ashamed  to  despise  him  to  whom  you 
owe  it  that  you  have  it  in  your  power  to  give  yourself  airs 
at  all  ?"  Seeing  a  handsome  young  man  chattering  in  an  un- 
seemly manner,  he  said,  "  Are  you  not  ashamed  to  draw  a 
sword  cut  of  lead  out  of  a  scabbard  of  ivory  ?"  Being  once 
reproached  for  drinking  in  a  vintner's  shop,  he  said,  "  I  have 
my  hair  cut,  too,  in  a  barber's."  At  another  time  he  was 
attacked  for  having  accepted  a  cloak  from  Antipater,  but  he 

replied : — 

"  Refuse  not  thou  to  heed 
The  gifts  which  from  the  mighty  Gods  proceed."* 

A  man  once  struck  him  with  a  broom,  and  said,  "  Take 
care ;"  so  he  struck  him  in  return  with  his  staff,  and  said, 
"  Take  care." 

He  once  said  to  a  man  who  was  addressing  anxious  en- 
treaties to  a  courtesan,  "  What  can  you  wish  to  obtain,  you 

*  Horn.  Iliad. 


DIOGENES.  153 

wretched  man,  that  you  had  not  better  be  disappointed  in  ?" 
Seeing  a  man  reeking  all  over  with  unguents,  he  said  to  him, 
"Have  a  care,  lest  the  fragrance  of -your  head  give  a  bad 
odor  to  your  life."  One  of  his  sayings  was,  that  servants 
serve  their  masters,  and  that  wicked  men  are  the  slaves  of 
their  appetites.  Being  asked  why  slaves  were  called  andro- 
poda  (men-footed),  he  replied,  "  Because  they  have  the  feet  of 
men  (podas  androri),  and  a  soul  such  as  you  who  are  asking 
this  question."  He  once  asked  a  profligate  fellow  for  a  inina; 
and  when  he  put  the  question  to  him,  why  he  asked  others 
for  an  obol  and  him  for  a  rnina,  he  said,  "  Because  I  hope  to 
get  some&ing  from  the  others  another  time,  but  the  Gods 
alone  know  whether  I  shall  ever  extract  anything  from  you 
again."  Once  he  was  reproached  for  asking  favors,  while 
Plato  never  asked  for  any  ;  and  he  said  : — 

"  He  asks  as  well  as  I  do,  but  he  does  it 
Bending  his  head,  that  no  one  else  may  hear." 

One  day  he  saw  an  unskilful  archer,  shooting ;  so  he  went 
and  sat  down  by  the  target,  saying,  u  Now  I  shall  be  out  of 
harm's  way."  He  used  to  say  that  those  who  were  in  love, 
were  disappointed  in  regard  of  the  pleasure  they  expected. 
When  he  was  asked  whether  death  was  an  evil,  he  replied, 
"  How  can  that  be  an  evil  which  we  do  not  feel  when  it  is 
present?"  "When  Alexander  was  once  standing  by  him,  and 
saying,  "  Do  not  you  fear  me  ?"  He  replied,  "  No  ;  for  what 
are  you,  a  good  or  an  evil  ?"  And  as  he  said  that  he  was 
good.  u  Who,  then,"  said  Diogenes,  "  fears  the  good  ?"  He 
used  to  say  that  education  was,  for  the  young,  sobriety ;  for 
the  old,  comfort ;  for  the  poor,  riches ;  and  for  the  rich,  an 
ornament.  When  Didymus,  the  adulterer,  was  once  trying  to 
cure  the  eye  of  a  young  girl  (kores),  he  said,  "  Take  care,  lest 
when  you  are  curing  the  eye  of  the*  maiden,  you  do  not  hurt 
the  pupil."*  A  man  once  said  to  him,  that  his  friends  laid 

*  There  is  a  pun  here ;  kore  means  both  "  a  girl "  and  "  the  pupil  of  the  eye.'- 
And phtheiro,  "  to  destroy,"  is  also  especially  used  for  "to  seduce." 


154  DIOGENES. 

plots  against  him  ;  "  What,  then,"  said  he,  "  are  you  to  do, 
if  you  must  look  upon  both  your  friends  and  enemies  in  the 
same  light?"  * 

On  one  occasion  he  was  asked,  what  was  the  most  excellent 
thing  among  men ;  and  he  said,  "Freedom  of  speech."  He 
went  once  into  a  school,  and  saw  many  statues  of  the  Muses, 
but  very  few  pupils,  and  said,  "  Gods,  and  all  my  good  school- 
master, you  have  plenty  of  pupils."  He  was  in  the  habit  of 
doing  everything  in  public,  whether  in  respect  of  Yenus  or 
Ceres ;  and  he  used  to  put  his  conclusions  in  this  way  to  peo- 
ple :  "  If  there  is  nothing  absurd  in  dining,  then  it  is  not  ab- 
surd to  dine  in  the  market-place.  But  it  is  not  absurd  to  dine, 
therefore  it  is  not  absurd  to  dine  in  the  market-place."  And 
as  he  was  continually  doing  manual  work  in  public,  he  said 
one  day,  u  Would  that  by  rubbing  my  belly  I  could  get  rid  of 
hunger."  Other  sayings  also  are  attributed  to  him,  which  it 
would  take  a  long  time  to  enumerate,  there  is  such  a  multipli- 
city of  them. 

He  used  to  say,  that  there  were  two  kinds  of  exercise  ;  that, 
namely,  of  the  mind  and  that  of  the  body ;  and  that  the  lat- 
ter of  these  created  in  the  mind  such  quick  and  agile  phanta- 
sies at  the  time  of  its  performance,  as  very  much  facilitated  the 
practice  of  virtue ;  but  that  one  was  imperfect  without  the 
other,  since  the  health  and  vigor  necessary  for  the  practice 
of  what  is  good,  depend  equally  on  both  mind  and  body.  And 
he  used  to  allege  as  proofs  of  this,  and  of  the  ease  which  prac- 
tice imparts  to  acts  of  virtue,  that  people  could  see  that  in  the 
case  of  mere  common  working  trades,  and  other  employments 
of  that  kind,  the  artisans  arrived  at  no  inconsiderable  accuracy 
by  constant  practice ;  and  that  any  one  may  see  how  much 
one  flute  player,  or  one  wrestler,  is  superior  to  another,  by  his 
own  continued  practice.  And  that  if  these  men  transferred 
the  same  training  to  their  minds  they  would  not  labor  in  a 
profitless  or  imperfect  manner.  He  used  to  say  also,  that  there 
was  nothing  whatever  in  life  which  could  be  brought  to  per- 


DIOGENES.  155 

fection  without  practice,  and  that  that  alone  was  able  to  over- 
come every  obstacle ;  that,  therefore,  as  we  ought  to  repudiate 
all  useless  toils,  and  to  apply  ourselves  to  useful  labors,  and 
to  live  happily,  we  are  only  unhappy  in  consequence  of  most 
exceeding  folly.  For  the  very  contempt  of  pleasure,  if  we 
only  inure  ourselves  to  it,  is  very  pleasant ;  and  just  as  they 
who  are  accustomed  to  Jive  luxuriously,  are  brought  very 
unwillingly  to  adopt  the  contrary  system;  so  they  who  have 
been  originally  inured  to  that  opposite  system,  feel  a  sort  of 
pleasure  in  the  contempt  of  pleasure. 

This  used  to  be  the  language  which  he  held,  and  he  used  to 
show  in  practice,  really  altering  men's  habits,  and  deferring  in 
all  things  rather  to  the  principles  of  nature  than  to  those  of 
law.  He  also  argued  about  the  law,  that  without  it. there  is 
no  possibility  of  a  constitution  being  maintained  ;  for  without 
a  city  there  can  be  nothing  orderly,  but  a  city  is  an  orderly 
thing ;  and  without  a  city  there  can  be  no  law  ;  therefore  law 
is  order.  And  he  played  in  the  same  manner  with  the  topics 
of  noble  birth,  and  reputation,  and  all  things  of  that  kind, 
saying  that  they  were  all  veils,  as  it  were,  for  wickedness;  and 
that  that  was  the  only  proper  constitution  which  consisted  in 
order.  And  he  said,  that  all  people's  sous  ought  to  belong  to 
every  one  in  common;  and  there  was  nothing  intolerable  in 
the  idea  of  taking  anything  out  of  a  temple,  or  eating  any  animal 
whatever,  and  that  there  was  no  impiety  in  tasting  even 
human  flesh  ;  as  is  plain  from  the  habits  of  foreign  nations  ; 
and  he  said  that  this  principle  might  be  correctly  extended 
to  every  case  and  every  people.  For  he  said  that  in  real- 
ity, everything  was  a  combination  of  all  things.  For  that 
in  bread  there  was  meat,  and  in  vegetables  there  was 
bread,  and  so  there  were  some  particles  of  all  other  bodies 
in  everything  communicating  by  invisible  passages  and  evap- 
orating. 

And  he  bore  being  sold  with  a  most  magnanimous  spirit. 
For  as  he  was  sailing  to  ^Egina,  and  was  taken  prisoner  by 


156  DIOGENES. 

some  pirates,  under  the  command  of  Scirpalus,  he  was  carried 
off  to  Crete  and  sold ;  and  when  the  Circe  asked  him  what 
art  he  understood,  he  said,  "  That  of  governing  men."  And 
presently  pointing  out  a  Corinthian,  very  carefully  dressed, 
(the  same  Xeniades  whom  Ave  have  mentioned  before,)  he 
said,  "  Sell  me  to  that  man  ;  for  he  wants  a  master."  Accord- 
ingly Xeniades  bought  him  and  carried  him  away  to  Corinth ; 
and  then  he  made  him  tutor  of  his  sons,  and  committed  to 
him  the  entire  management  of  his  house.  And  he  behaved 
himself  in  every  affair  in  such  a  manner,  that  Xeniades,  when 
looking  over  his  property,  said,  "A  good  genius  has  come 
into  my  house."  And  Cleomenes,  in  his  book  which  is  called 
the  Schoolmaster,  says,  that  he  wished  to  ransom  all  his  rela- 
tions, but  that  Diogenes  told  him  they  were  all  fools  ;  for  that 
lions  did  not  become  the  slaves  of  those  who  kept  them,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  those  who  maintained  lions  were  their  slaves. 
For  that  it  was  the  part  of  a  slave  to  fear,  but  that  wild  beasts 
were  formidable  to  men. 

And  the  man  had  the  gift  of  persuasion  in  a  wonderful  de- 
gree ;  so  that  he  could  easily  overcome  any  one'  by  his  argu- 
ments. Accordingly,  it  is  said  that  an  JEginetan  of  the  name 
of  Onesicritus,  having  two  sons,  sent  to  Athens  one  of  them, 
whose  name  was  Androsthenes,  and  that  he,  after  having 
heard  Diogenes  lecture,  remained  there  ;  and  that  after  that, 
he  sent  the  elder,  Philiscus,  who  has  been  already  mentioned, 
and  that  Philiscus  was  charmed  in  the  same  manner.  And 
last  of  all,  he  came  himself,  and  then  he  too  remained  no  less 
than  his  son,  studying  philosophy  at  the  feet  of  Diogenes.  So 
great  a  charm  was  there  in  the  discourses  of  Diogenes.  An- 
other pupil  of  his  was  Phocion,  who  was  surnamed  the  Good; 
and  Stilpon,  the  Megarian,  and  a  great  many  other  men  of 
eminence  as  statesmen. 

He  is  said  to  have  died  when  he  was  nearly  ninety  years  of 
age,  but  there  are  different  accounts  given  of  his  death.  For 
some  say  that  he  ate  an  ox's  foot  raw,  and  was  in  consequence 


DIOGENES.  157 

seized  with  a  bilious  attack,  of  which  he  died ;  others,  of 
whom  Cercidas,  a  Megalopolitan  or  Cretan,  is  one,  say  that  he 
died  of  holding  his  breath  for  several  days ;  and  Ceroidas 
speaks  thus  of  him  in  his  Meliambics  :- 

He,  that  Sinopian  who  bore  the  stick, 
Wore  his  cloak  doubled,  and  in  th'  open  air 
Dined  without  washing,  would  not  bear  with  life 
A  moment  longer  :  but  he  shut  his  teeth, 
And  held  his  breath.    He  truly  was  the  son 
Of  Jove,  and  a  most  heavenly-minded  dog, 
The  wise  Diogenes. 

Others  say  that  he,  while  intending  to  distribute  a  polypus  to 
his  dogs,  was  bitten  by  them  through  the  tendon  of  his  foot, 
and  so  died.  But  his  own  greatest  friends,  as  Antisthenes 
tells  us  in  his  Successions,  rather  sanction  the  story  of  his 
having  died  from  holding  his  breath.  For  he  used  to  live  in 
the  Oraneum,  which  was  a  Gymnasium  at  the  gates  of  Corinth. 
And  his  friends  came  according  to  their  custom,  and  found 
him  with  his  head  covered  ;  and  as  they  did  not  suppose  that 
he  was  asleep,  for  he  was  not  a  man  much  subject  to  the  in- 
fluence of  night  or  sleep,  they  drew  away  his  cloak  from  his 
face,  and  found  him  no  longer  breathing ;  and  they  thought 
that  he  had  done  this  on  purpose,  wishing  to  escape  the  re- 
maining portion  of  his  life. 

On  this  there  was  a  quarrel,  as  they  say,  between  his  friends, 
as  to  who  should  bury  him,  and  they  even  came  to  blows ;  but 
when  the  elders  and  chief  men  of  the  city  came  there,  they 
say  that  he  was  buried  by  them  at  the  gate  which  leads  to 
the  Isthmus.  And  they  placed  over  him  a  pillar,  and  on  that 
a  dog  in  Parian  marble.  And  at  a  later  period  his  fellow- 
citizens  honored  him  with  brazen  statues,  and  put  this  inscrip- 
tion on  them  :  — 

E'en  brass  by  lapse  of  time  doth  old  become, 
But  there  is  no  such  time  as  shall  efface, 
Your  lasting  glory,  wise  Diogenes  ; 

14 


158  DIAGORAS. 

Since  you  alone  did  teach  to  men  the  art 
Of  a  contented  life  ;  the  surest  path 
To  glory  and  a  lasting  happiness. 

Some,  however,  say  that  when  he  was  dying,  he  ordered 
his  friends  to  throw  his  corpse  away  without  burying  it,  so 
that  every  beast  might  tear  it,  or  else  to  throw  it  into  a  ditch, 
and  sprinkle  a  little  dust  over  it.  And  others  say  that  his 
injunctions  were,  that  he  should  be  thrown  into  the  Ilissus ; 
that  so  he  might  be  useful  to  his  brethren.  But  Demetrius, 
in  his  treatise  on  Men  of  the  Same  Name,  says  that  Diogenes 
died  in  Corinth  the  same  day  that  Alexander  died  in  Babylon. 
And  he  was  already  an  old  man,  as  early  as  the  hundred  and 
thirteenth  Olympiad. 


DIOGENES,  THE  BABYLONIAN. 

DIOGENES,  of  Seleucia,  called  also  the  Babylonian,  from  the 
vicinity  of  Babylon  to  his  native  place,  applied  himself  so  dil- 
igently to  the  study  and  propagation  of  the  Stoic  doctrine, 
that  Cicero  calls  him  a  great  and  respectable  Stoic.  This  was 
unquestionably  the  reason  for  which  he  was  sent  with  Car- 
neades  and  Critolaus  on  the  celebrated  embassy  from  Athens 
to  Rome.  Seneca  relates,  that  as  he  was  one  day  discoursing 
upon  anger,  a  foolish  youth,  in  hope  of  raising  a  laugh  against 
the  philosopher  by  making  him  angry,  spit  in  his  face  ;  upon 
which  Diogenes  meekly  and  prudently  said,  "I  am  not  angry, 
but  I  am  in  doubt  whether  I  ought  not  to  be  so."  He  lived 
to  the  age  of  eighty-eight  years. 


DIAGORAS. 

DIAGOEAS  was  a  native  of  the  island  of  Melos.     He  was 
sold  as  a  captive  in  his  youth,  but  was  afterwards  redeemed 


DIAGORAS.  159 

by  Democritus,  and  trained  up  to  the  study  of  philosophy. 
He  also  cultivated  polite  learning,  and  distinguished  himself 
in  the  art  of  poetry.  His  name,  however,  has  been  transmit- 
ted to  posterity  with  infamy,  in  consequence  of  his  atheistical 
principles.  It  is  positively  asserted  that  on  one  occasion, 
when  he  saw  a  perjured  person  escape  punishment,  he  pub- 
licly avowed  his  disbelief  of  Divine  Providence,  and  from  that 
time  spoke  of  the  Gods,  and  of  all  religious  ceremonies,  with 
ridicule  and  contempt.  He  even  attempted  to  lay  open  the 
sacred  mysteries,  and  to  dissuade  the  people  from  submitting 
to  the  rites  of  initiation.  These  public  insults  offered  to  re- 
ligion brought  upon  him  the  general  hatred  of  the  Athenians ; 
who,  upon  his  refusing  to  obey  a  summons  to  appear  in  the 
courts  of  judicature,  issued  forth  a  decree,  which  was  inscribed 
upon  a  brazen  column,  offering  the  reward  of  a  talent  to  any 
one  who  should  kill  him,  or  two  talents  to  any  one  who 
should  bring  him  alive  before  the  judges.  This  happened  in 
the  ninety-first  Olympiad.  From  that  time  Diagoras  became 
a  fugitive  in  Attica,  and  at  last  fled  to  Corinth,  where  he  died. 
It  is  said,  that  being  on  board  a  ship  during  a  storm,  the  ter- 
rified sailors  began  to  accuse  themselves  for  having  received 
into  their  ship  a  man  so  infamous  for  his  impiety ;  upon 
which  Diagoras  pointed  out  to  them  other  vessels,  which 
were  near  them  on  the  sea  in  equal  danger1,  and  asked  them, 
whether  they  thought  that  each  of  these  ships  also  carried  a 
Diagoras ;  and  that  afterwards,  when  a  friend,  in  order  to 
convince  him  that  the  Gods  are  not  indifferent  to  human  affairs, 
desired  him  to  observe  how  many  consecrated  tablets  were 
hung  up  in  the  temples  in  grateful  acknowledgment  of  the 
escapes  from  the  dangers  of  the  sea,  he  said  in  reply,  "  True ; 
but  here  are  no  tablets  of  those  who  have  suffered  shipwreck, 
and  perished  in  the  sea.*'  But  there  is  reason  to  suspect  that 
these  tales  are  mere  inventions  ;  for  similar  stories  have  been 
told  of  Diogenes,  the  Cynic,  and  others. 


160  EDDIN     SADI. 


EDDIN    SADI. 

EDDIN  SADI,  a  Persian,  about  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  when  the  Turks  invaded  Persia,  withdrew  from  his 
own  country,  and  settled  at  Bagdat,  for  the  purpose  of  pros- 
ecuting his  studies.  After  experiencing  much  vicissitude  of 
fortune,  he  returned  home,  and  compiled  a  beautiful  com- 
pendium of  Oriental  ethics,  under  the  title  of  the  Persian 
Rosary,  which  he  completed  in  the  year  1257.  This  work  has 
been  universally  read  in  the  East,  and  has  been  translated 
into  Latin,  and  into  several  modern  languages.  From  this 
Rosary,  which  is  divided  into  eight  chapters,  we  shall  cull  a 
few  of  the  choicest  flowers. 

1.  Paradise  will  be  the  reward  of  those  kings  who  restrain 
their  resentment,  and  know  how  to  forgive.     A  king  who 
institutes  unjust  laws,  undermines  the  foundation  of  his  king- 
dom.    Let  him  who  neglects  to  raise  the  fallen,  fear  lest,  when 
he  himself  falls,  no  one  will  stretch  out  his  hand  to  lift  him 
up.     Administer  justice  to  your  people,  for  a  day  of  judg- 
ment is  at  hand.     The  dishonest  steward's  hand  will  shake, 
when  he  comes  to  render  an  account  of  his  trust.     Be  just, 
and  fear  not.     Oppress  not  thy  subjects,  lest  the  sighing  of 
the  oppressed  should  ascend  to  heaven.     If  you  wish  to  be 
great,  be  liberal ;  for  unless  you  sow  the  seed,  there  can  be  no 
increase.     Assist  and  relieve  the  wretched,  for  misfortunes 
may   happen   to   yourself.      Wound   no   man   unnecessarily; 
there  are  thorns  enough  in  the  path  of  human  life.     If  a  king 
take  an  apple  from  the  garden  of  a  subject,  his  servants  will 
soon  cut  down  the  tree.     The  flock  is  not  made  for  the  shep- 
herd, but  the  shepherd  for  the  flock. 

2.  Excel  in  good  works,  and  wear  what  you  please  ;  inno- 
cence and  piety  do  not  consist  in  wearing  an  old  or  coarse 
garment.     Learn  virtue  from  the  vicious ;  and  what  offends 
you  in  their  conduct,  avoid  in  yoi.r  own.    If  you  have  received 


EDDIN      SADI.  1G1 

an  injury,  bear  it  patiently ;  by  pardoning  the  offences  of 
others,  you  will  wash  away  your  own.  Him,  who  has  been 
every  day  conferring  upon  you  new  favors,  pardon,  if,  in  the 
space  of  a  long  life,  he  should  have  once  done  you  an  injury. 
Respect  the  memory  of  the  good,  that  your  good  name  may 
live  forever. 

3.  In  your  adversity,  do  not  visit  your  friend  with  a  sad 
countenance ;  for  you  will  embitter  his  cup  :  relate  even  your 
misfortunes  with  a  smile  ;  for  wretchedness  will  never  reach 
the  heart  of  a  cheerful  man.     He  who  lives  upon  the  fruits 
of  his  own  labor,  escapes  the  contempt  of  haughty  benefac- 
tors.     Always  encounter    petulance    with    gentleness,   and 
perverseness  with  kindness  :    a  gentle  hand  will  lead  the  ele- 
phant itself  by  a  hair.     When  once  you  have  offended  a  man, 
do  not  presume  that  a  hundred  benefits  will  secure  you  from 
revenge :  an  arrow  may  be  drawn  out  of  a  wound,  but  an 
injury  is  never  forgotten.     Worse  than  the  venom  of  a  ser- 
pent, is  the  tongue  of  an  enemy  who  pretends  to  be  your  friend. 

4.  It  is  better  to  be  silent  on  points  we  understand,  than  to 
be  put  to  shame  by  being  questioned  upon  things  of  which 
we  are  ignorant.     A  wise  man  will  not  contend  with  a  fool. 
It  is  a  certain  mark  of  folly,  as  well  as  rudeness,  to  speak 
whilst  another  is  speaking.     If  you  are  wise,  you  will  speak 
less  than  you  know. 

5.  Although  you  can  repeat  every  word  of  the  Koran,  if 
you  suffer  yourself  to  be  enslaved  by  love,  you  have  not  yet 
learned  your  alphabet.      The  immature  grape  is  sour  ;  wait  a 
few  days,  and  it  will  become  sweet.     If  you  resist  temptation, 
do  not  assure  yourself  that  you  shall  escape  slander.     The 
reputation  which  has  been  fifty  years  in  building,  may  be 
thrown  down  by  one  blast  of  calumny.     Listen  not  to  the  tale 
of  friendship  from  the  man  who  has  been  capable  of  forgetting 
his  friends  in  adversity. 

6.  Perseverance  accomplishes  more  than  precipitation  :  the 
patient  mule,  which  travels  slowly  night  and  day,  will  in  the 


162  EDDIN      SADI. 

end  go  further  than  an  Arabian  courser.  If  you  are  old, 
leave  sports  and  jests  to  the  young  :  the  stream  which  has 
passed  away,  will  not  return  into  its  channel. 

7.  Instruction  is  only  profitable  to  those  who  are  capable 
of  receiving  it :  bring  an  ass  to  Mecca,  and  it  will  still  return 
an  ass.     If  you  would  be  your  father's  heir,  learn  his  wisdom : 
his  wealth  you  may  expend  in  ten  days.     He  who  is  tinctured 
with  good  principles  while  he  is  young,  when  he  is  grown  old 
will  not  be  destitute  of  virtue.     If  a  man  be  destitute  of 
knowledge,  prudence,  and  virtue,  his  door-keeper  may  say, 
Nobody  is  at  home.     Give  advice  where  you  ought ;  if  it  be 
not  regarded,  the  fault  is  not  yours. 

8.  Two  kinds  of  men  labor  in  vain :  they  who  get  riches, 
and  do  not  enjoy  them ;  and  they  who  learn  wisdom,  and  do 
not  apply  it  to  the  conduct  of  life.     A  wise  man  who  is  not 
at  the  same  time  virtuous,  is  a  blind  man  carrying  a  lamp :  he 
gives  light  to  others,  whilst  he  himself  remains  in  darkness. 
If  you  wish  to  sleep  soundly,  provide  for  to-morrow.     Trust 
no  man,  not  even  your  best  friend,  with  a  secret :  you  will 
never  find  a  more  faithful  guardian  of  the  trust  than  yourself. 
Let  your  misfortunes  teach  you  compassion :  he  knows  the 
condition  of  the  wretched,  who  has  himself  been  wretched. 
Excessive  vehemence  creates  enmity  ;    excessive  gentleness, 
contempt :  be  neither  so  severe  as  to  be  hated,  nor  so  mild  as 
to  be  insulted.     He  who  throws  away  advice  upon  a  conceit- 
ed man,  himself  wants  an  adviser.     In  a  single  hour  you  may 
discover  whether  a  man  has  good  sense ;  but  it  will  require 
many  years  to  discover  whether  he  has  good  temper.     Three 
things  are  unattainable  :  riches  without  trouble,  science  with- 
out controversy,  and  government  without  punishment.  /Clem- 
ency to  the  wicked  is  an  injury  to  the  good.     If  learning 
were  banished  from  the  earth,  there  would,  notwithstanding, 
be  no  one  who  would  think  himself  ignorant. 

The  whole  work  from  which  these  specimens  are  selected 
is  an  elegant  specimen  of  Arabian  morals. 


EMPEDOCLES.  '  163 


EMPEDOCLES. 

EMPEDOCLES  was  a  citizen  of  Agrigentum.  He  was  a  pupil 
of  Pythagoras,  saying  that  he  was  afterwards  convicted  of 
having  divulged  his  doctrines,  in  the  same  way  as  Plato  was, 
and  therefore  that  he  was  forbidden  from  thenceforth  to  at- 
tend his  school.  And  they  say  that  Pythagoras  himself  men- 
tions him  when  he  says : — 

And  in  that  band  there  was  a  learned  man, 
Of  wondrous  wisdom  ;  one,  who  of  all  men 
Had  the  profouudest  wealth  of  intellect. 

But  some  say  that  when  the  philosopher  says  this,  he  is  refer- 
ring to  Parmenides. 

Satyrus  says  that  he  practiced  magic,  and  that  he  professes 
a  knowledge  of  this  art  in  the  following  lines  : — 

And  all  the  drugs  which  can  relieve  disease, 
Or  soften  the  approach  of  age,  shall  be 
Revealed  to  your  inquiries  ;  I  do  know  them, 
And  I  to  you  alone  will  them  disclose. 
You  shall  restrain  the  fierce  unbridled  winds, 
Which,  rushing  o'er  the  earth,  bow  down  the  corn, 
And  crush  the  farmer's  hopes.    And  when  you  will, 
You  shall  recall  them  back  to  sweep  the  land : 
Then  you  shall  learn  to  dry  the  rainy  clouds, 
And  bid  warm  summer  cheer  the  heart  of  men. 
Again,  at  your  behest,  the  draught  shall  yield 
To  wholesome  show'rs :  when  you  give  the  word 
Hell  shall  restore  its  dead. 

And  Timseus,  in  his  eighteenth  book,  says,  that  this  man 
was  held  in  great  esteem  on  many  accounts ;  for  that  once, 
when  the  Etesian  gales  were  blowing  violently,  so  as  to  injure 
the  "crops,  he  ordered  some  asses  to  be  flayed,  and  some  blad- 
ders to  be  made  of  their  hides,  and  these  he  placed  on  the 
hills  and  high  places  to  catch  the  wind.  And  so,  when  the 
wind  ceased,  he  was  called  wind-forbidder. 

It  is  also  said  that  he  kept  the  corpse  of  a  dead  woman  free 


164  EMPEDOCLES. 

from  corruption  thirty  days,  on  which  account  he  professed 
to  be  a  physician  and  a  prophet.  Empedocles,  seeing  the 
people  immersed  in  luxury,  said,  "  The  men  of  Agrigentuni 
devote  themselves  wholly  to  luxury  as  if  they  were  to  die  to- 
morrow, but  they  furnish  their  houses  as  if  they  were  to  live 
forever." 

And  Aristotle  says,  that  he  was  a  most  liberal  man,  and  far 
removed  from  anything  like  a  domineering  spirit ;  since  lie 
constantly  refused  the  sovereign  power  when  it  was  offered  to 
him,  as  Xanthus  assures  us  in  his  account  of  him,  showing 
plainly  that  he  preferred  a  simple  style  of  living.  And 
Timseus  tells  the  same  story,  giving  at  the  same  time  the 
reason  why  he  was  so  very  popular.  For  he  says  that  when  on 
one  occasion,  he  was  invited  to  a  banquet  by  one  of  the  mag- 
istrates, the  wine  was  carried  about,  but  the  supper  was  not 
served  up.  And  as  every  one  else  kept  silence,  he,  disapprov- 
ing of  what  he  saw,  bade  the  servants  bring  in  the  supper ; 
but  the  person  who  had  invited  him  said  that  he  was  waiting 
for  the  secretary  of  the  council.  And  when  he  came  he  was 
appointed  master  of  the  feast,  at  the  instigation  of  the  giver 
of  it,  and  then  he  gave  a  plain  intimation  of  his  tyrannical  in- 
clinations, for  he  ordered  all  the  guests  to  drink,  and  those 
who  did  not  drink  were  to  have  the  wine  poured  over  their 
heads.  Empedocles  said  nothing  at  the  moment,  but  the  next 
day  he  summoned  them  before  the  court,  and  procured  the 
execution  of  both  the  entertainer  and  the  master  of  the  feast. 

And  this  was  the  beginning  of  his  political  career.  But 
there  are  two  accounts  of  the  manner  of  his  death. 

For  Heraclides,  relating  the  story  about  the  dead  woman, 
how  Empedocles  got  great  glory  from  sending  away  a  dead 
woman  restored  to  life,  says  that  he  celebrated  a  sacrifice  in 
the  field  of  Pisianax,  and  that  some  of  his  friends  were  invited, 
among  whom  was  Pausanias.  And  then,  after  the  banquet, 
they  lay  down,  some  going  a  little  way  off,  and  some  lying 
under  the  trees  close  by  in  the  field,  and  some  wherever  they 


EMPEDOCLES.  165 

happened  to  choose.  But  Empedocles  himself  remained  in  the 
place  where  he  had  been  sitting.  But  when  day  broke,  and 
they  a;  ose,  he  alone  was  not  found.  And  when  he  was  sought 
for,  and  the  servants  were  examined  and  said  that  they  did  not 
Know,  one  of  them  said,  that  at  midnight  he  had  heard  a  loud 
T^ice  calling  Empedocles ;  and  that  then  he  himself  rose  up 
and  saw  a  great  light  from  heaven,  but  nothing  else.  And  as 
they  were  all  amazed  at  what  had  taken  place,  Pansanias  de- 
s^ended  and  sent  some  people  to  look  for  him  ;  but  afterwards 
he  was  commanded  not  to  busy  himself  about  the  matter,  as 
^e  was  informed  that  what  had  happened  was  deserving  of 
thankfulness,  and  that  they  behoved  a  sacrifice  to  Empedocles 
<is  to  one  who  had  become  a  God. 

Hermippus  says  also,  that  a  woman  of  the  name  of  Panthea, 
n  native  of  Agrigentum,  who  had  been  given  over  by  the  phy- 
sicians, was  cured  by  him,  and  that  it  was  on  this  account  that 
Ae  celebrated  a  sacrifice ;  and  that  the  guests  invited  were 
about  eighty  in  number.  But  Hippobotus  says  that  he  rose  up 
and  went  away  as  if  he  were  going  to  mount  ^Etna ;  and  that 
<vhen  he  arrived  at  the  crater  of  fire  he  leaped  in,  and  disap- 
«>eared,  wishing  to  establish  a  belief  that  he  had  become  a 
God.  But  afterwards  the  truth  was  detected  by  one  of  his 
slippers  having  been  dropped,  For  he  used  to  wear  slippers 
with  brazen  soles.  Pausanias,  however,  contradicts  this  state- 
ment. 

But  Diodorus,  of  Ephesus,  writing  about  Anaximander,  says 
that  Empedocles  imitated  him;  indulging  in  the  tragic  sort  of 
pride,  and  wearing  magnificent  apparel.  And  when  a  pesti- 
lence attacked  the  people  of  Selinus,  by  reason  of  the  bad 
smells  arising  from  the  adjacent  river,  so  that  the  men  died  and 
the  women  bore  dead  children,  Empedocles  contrived  a  plan, 
and  bought  into  the  same  channel  two  other  rivers  at  his  own 
expense ;  and  so,  by  mixing  their  waters  with  that  of  the 
other  river,  he  sweetened  the  stream.  And  as  the  pestilence 
was  removed  in  this  way,  when  the  people  of  Selinus  were  on 


166  EMPEDOCLES. 

one  occasion  holding  a  festival  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  EUJ- 
pedocles  appeared  among  them ;  and  they  rising  up,  offered 
him  adoration,  and  prayed  to  him  as  to  a  God.  And  he,  wish- 
ing to  confirm  this  idea  which  they  had  adopted  of  him,  leap- 
ed into  the  fire. 

But  Timseus  contradicts  all  these  stories ;  saying  expressly, 
that  he  departed  into  Peloponnesus,  and  never  returned  at  all, 
on  which  account  the  manner  of  his  death  is  uncertain.  And 
he  especially  denies  the  tale  of  Heraclides  in  his  fourth  book ; 
for  he  says  that  Pisianax  was  a  Syracusan,  and  had  no  field  in 
the  district  of  Agrigentum;  but  that  Pausanias  erected  a 
monument  in  honor  of  his  friend,  since  such  a  report  had  got 
about  concerning  him ;  and,  as  he  was  a  rich  man,  made  it  a 
statue  and  little  chapel,  as  one  might  erect  to  a  God.  "  How 
then,"  adds  Timaeus,  "  could  he  have  leaped  into  a  crater,  of 
which,  though  they  were  in  the  neighborhood,  he  -had  never 
made  any  mention?  He  died  then  in  Peloponnesus;  and 
there  is  nothing  extraordinary  in  there  being  no  tomb  of  his 
to  be  seen  ;  for  there  are  many  other  men  who  have  no  tomb 
visible."  These  are  the  words  of  Timseus;  and  he  adds 
further,  "  But  Heraclides  is  altogether  a  man  fond  of  strange 
stories,  and  one  who  would  assert  that  a  man  had  fallen  from 
the  moon." 

Hippobotus  says,  that  there  was  a  clothed  statue  of  Einpe- 
docles  which  lay  formerly  in  Agrigentum,  but  which  was  af- 
terwards placed  in  front  of  the  Senate  i-ouse  of  the  Romans, 
divested  of  its  clothing,  as  the  Romans  had  carried  it  off  and 
erected  it  there.  And  there  are  traces  of  some  inscriptions  or 
reliefs  still  discernible  on  it. 

Neanthes,  of  Cyzicus,  "who  also  wrote  about  the  Pythago- 
reans, says,  that  when  Meton  was  dead,  the  seeds  of  tyrannical 
power  began  to  appear ;  and  that  then  Empedocles  persuaded 
the  Agrigentines  to  desist  from  their  factious  disputes,  and  to 
establish  political  equality.  And  besides,  as  there  were  many 
of  the  female  citizens  destitute  of  dowry,  he  portioned  them 


EMPEDOCLES,  16? 

oat  of  his  own  private  fortune.  And  relying  on  these  actions 
of  his,  he  assumed  a  purple  robe  and  wore  a  golden  circlet  on 
his  hand,  as  Phavorinus  relates  in  the  first  book  of  his  Com- 
mentaries. He  also  wore  slippers  with  brazen  soles,  and  a 
Delphian  garland.  His  hair  was  let  grow  very  long,  and  he 
had  boys  to  follow  him ;  and  he  himself  always  preserved  a 
solemn  countenance,  and  a  uniformly  grave  deportment.  And 
he  marched  about  in  such  style,  that  he  seemed  to  all  the 
citizens,  who  met  him  and  who  admired  his  deportment,  to 
exhibit  a  sort  of  likeness  to  kingly  power.  And  afterwards,  it 
happened  that  as  on  the  occasion  of  some  festival  he  was  going 
in  a  chariot  to  Messene,  he  was  upset  and  broke  his  thigh  ; 
and  he  was  taken  ill  in  consequence,  and  so  died,  at  the  age 
of  seventy-seven.  His  tomb  is  in  Megara. 

He  flourished  about  the  eighty-fourth  Olympiad.  Demetrius, 
of  Trsezon,  in  his  book  against  the  Sophists,  reports  that  as  the 
lines  of  Homer  say : — 

He  now,  self-murdered,  from  a  beam  depends, 
And  his  mad  soul  to  blackest  hell  descends.* 

But  in  the  letter  of  Telauges,  which  has  been  mentioned  be- 
fore, it  is  said  that  he  slipped  down  through  old  age,  and  fell 
into  the  sea,  and  so  died. 

There  is  a  jesting  epigram  of  ours  upon  him,  in  our  collec- 
tion of  Poems  in  all  Metres,  which  runs  thus  : — 

You  too,  Empedocles,  essayed  to  purge 
Your  body  in  the  rapid  flames,  and  drank 
The  liquid  fire  from  the  restless  crater; 
I  say  not  that  you  threw  yourself  at  once 
Into  the  stream  of  ^Etna's  fiery  flood. 
But  seeking  to  conceal  yourself  you  fell, 
And  so  you  met  with  unintended  death. 

And  another : — 

'Tis  said  the  wise  Empedocles  did  fall 
Out  of  his  chariot,  and  so  broke  his  thigh  : 
But  if  he  leapt  into  the  flames  of  ^Etna, 
How  could  his  tomb  be  shown  in  Megara  ? 

*  This  is  slightly  parodied  from  Homer.    Od.  xi.  278.    Pope's  Version,  337. 


168  EMPEDOCLES. 

In  addition  to  the  above  account  by  D.  Laertius,  we  insert 
the  following  from  Brucker  : 

After  the  death  of  his  father  Meto,  who  was"  a  wealthy  citi- 
zen of  Agrigentum,  Einpedocles  acquired  great  weight  among 
his  fellow-citizens  by  espousing  the  popular  party  and  favor- 
ing democratic  measures.  He  employed  a  large  share  of  his 
paternal  estate  in  giving  dowries  to  young  women,  and  marry- 
ing them  to  men  of  superior  rank.  His  consequence  in  the 
state  became  at  length  so  great,  that  he  ventured  to  assume 
several  of  the  distinctions  of  royalty,  particularly  a  purple 
robe,  a  golden  girdle,  a  Delphic  crown,  and  a  train  of  attend- 
ants, always  retaining  a  grave  and  commanding  aspect.  He 
was  a  determined  enemy  to  tyranny,  and  is  said  to  have  em- 
ployed his  influence  in  establishing  and  defending  the  rights 
of  his  countrymen. 

The  skill  which  Empedocles  possessed  in  medicine  and 
natural  philosophy  enabled  him  to  perform  many  wonders, 
which  he  passed  upon  the  superstitious  and  credulous  multi- 
tude for  miracles.  He  pretended  to  drive  away  noxious  winds 
from  his  country,  and  hereby  put  a  stop  to  epidemical  diseases. 
He  is  said  to  have  checked,  by  the  power  of  music,  the  mad- 
ness of  a  young  man,  who  was  threatening  his  enemy  with 
instant  death ;  to  have  cured  Pantha,  a  woman  of  Agrigen- 
tum, whom  all  the  physicians  had  declared  incurable ;  to  have 
restored  a  woman  to  life,  who  had  lain  breathless  for  thirty 
days ;  and  to  have  done  many  other  things  equally  astonish- 
ing, after  the  manner  of  Pythagoras ;  on  account  of  which 
he  was  an  object  of  universal  admiration,  so  that  when  he 
came  to  the  Olympic  games,  the  eyes  of  all  the  people  were 
fixed  upon  him. 


EPICTETUS.  169 


EPICTETUS. 

AN  iLustrioua  ornament  of  the  Stoic  school,  who  claims 
respectful  attention,  both  for  his  wisdom  and  virtues,  is  EPIO- 
TETUS.  This  eminent  philosopher  was  born  at  Hierapolis,  in 
Phrygia,  in  a  servile  condition,  and  was  sold  as  a  slave  to 
Epaphroditus,  one  of  Nero's  domestics.  Ancient  writers  are 
agreed  that  Epictetus  was  lame,  but  differ  with  respect  to  the 
cause  of  his  lameness.  Suidas  says  that  he  lost  one  of  his 
legs  when  he  was  young,  in  consequence  of  a  defluxion ;  Sim- 
plicins  asserts  that  he  was  born  lame;  Oelsus  relates,  that 
when  his  master,  in  order  to  torture  him,  bended  his  leg,  Epic- 
tetus, without  discovering  any  sign  of  fear,  said  to  him,  "  You 
will  break  it ;"  and  when  his  tormentor  had  broken  the  leg, 
he  only  said,  "  Did  I  not  tell  you  you  would  break  it  ?"  Oth- 
ers ascribe  his  lameness  to  the  heavy  chains  with  which  his 
master  loaded  him. 

Having  at  length,  by  some  means  which  are  not  related, 
obtained  his  manumission,  Epictetus  retired  to  a  small  hut 
within  the  city  of  Koine,  where,  with  nothing  more  than  the 
bare  necessaries  of  life,  he  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of 
philosophy.  Here  he  passed  his  days  entirely  alone,  till  his 
humanity  led  him  to  take  the  charge  of  a  child,  whom  a  friend 
of  his  had  through  poverty  exposed,  and  to  provide  it  with  a 
nurse.  Having  furnished  himself,  by  diligent  study,  with  a 
competent  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  the  Stoic  philoso- 
phy, and  having  received  instructions  in  rhetoric  from  Rufus, 
who  is  said  to  have  been  himself  a  bold  and  successful  cor- 
rector of  public  manners,  Epictetus,  notwithstanding  his  pov- 
erty, became  a  popular  moral  preceptor.  He  was  an  acute 
and  judicious  observer  of  manners.  His  eloquence  was  sim- 
ple, majestic,  nervous,  and  penetrating.  His  doctrine  incul- 
cated the  purest  morals ;  and  his  life  was  an  admirable  pat- 
tern of  sobriety,  magnanimity,  and  the  most  rigid  virtue. 

15 


170  EPICURUS. 

Neither  his  humble  station,  nor  his  singular  merit,  could, 
however,  screen  Epictetus  from  the  tyranny  of  the  monster 
Domitian.  "With  the  rest  of  the  philosophers,  he  was  banish- 
ed, under  a  mock  decree  of  the  senate,  from  Italy.  But  he 
bore  his  exile  with  a  degree  of  firmness  worthy  of  a  philoso- 
pher who  called  himself  a  citizen  of  the  world,  and  could 
boast  that,  wherever  he  went,  he  carried  his  best  treasures 
along  with  him.  At  Nicopolis,  the  place  which  he  chose  for 
his  residence,  he  prosecuted  his  design  of  correcting  vice  and 
folly  by  the  precepts  of  philosophy.  Wherever  he  could  ob- 
tain an  auditory,  he  discoursed  concerning  the  true  way  of 
attaining  contentment  and  happiness  ;  and  the  wisdom  and 
eloquence  of  his  discourses  were  so  highly  admired,  that  it  be- 
came a  common  practice  among  the  more  studious  of  his 
hearers  to  commit  them  to  writing. 

Epictetus  flourished  from  the  time  of  Nero  to  the  latter  end 
of  the  reign  of  Adrian  ;  but  it  is  improbable,  notwithstanding 
the  assertion  of  Themistius  and  Suidas,  that  his  life  was  pro- 
tracted to  the  reign  of  the  Antonines  ;  for  Aulus  Gellius,  who 
wrote  in  their  time,  speaks  of  Epictetus  as  lately  dead, 
whereas,  had  he  been  living  when  that  prince  engaged  pre- 
ceptors of  different  sects,  it  is  not  likely  that  he  would  have 
overlooked  the  first  ornament  of  the  Porch,  or  preferred,  his 
disciple,  Junius  Rusticus.  The  memory  of  Epictetus  v»  as  so 
highly  respected,  that,  according  to  Lucian,  the  earthen  ]amp 
by  which  he  used  to  study  was  sold  for  three  thousand 
drachms.  His  beautiful  Moral  Manual,  or  Enchiridion^  and 
his  "Dissertations,"  collected  by  Arrian,  were  drawn  up  fiom 
notes  which  his  disciples  took  from  his  .lips. 


EPICURUS. 

EPIOTJEUS  was  an  Athenian,  and  the  son  of  Neocles.     After 
the  death  of  Alexander,  when  the  Athenians  were  driven  out 


EPICURUS.  171 

of  Samos  by  Perdiccas,  he  went  to  Colophon,  to  his  father. 
And  when  he  had  spent  some  time  there,  and  collected  some 
disciples,  he  again  returned  to  Athens,  in  the  time  of  Anaxi- 
crates,  and  for  some  time  studied  philosophy,  mingling  with 
the  rest  of  the  philosophers  ;  but,  subsequently,  he  somehow 
or  other  established  the  school  which  was  called  after  his 
name.  And  he  used  to  say,  that  he  began  to  study  philoso- 
phy when  he  was  fourteen  years  of  age ;  but  Apollodorus, 
the  Epicurean,  in  the  first  book  of  his  account  of  the  life  of 
Epicurus  says,  that  he  came  to  the  study  of  philosophy,  hav- 
ing conceived  a  great  contempt  for  the  grammarians,  because 
they  could  not  explain  to  him  the  statements  in  Hesiod  re- 
specting Chaos. 

Diotimus,  the  Stoic,  was  very  hostile  to  him,  and  calum- 
niated him  in  a  most  bitter  manner,  publishing  fifty  obscene 
letters,  and  attributing  them  to  Epicurus,  and  also  giving  him 
the  credit  of  the  letters,  which  generally  go  under  the  name 
of  Chrysippus.  And  Posidonius,  the  Stoic,  and  Nicolaus,  and 
Sotion,  in  the  twelfth  of  these  books,  which  are  entitled  the 
Refutations  of  Diocles,  of  which  there  are  altogether  twenty- 
four  volumes,  and  Dionysius,  of  Halicarnassns,  have  also  at- 
tacked him  with  great  severity ;  for  they  say  that  he  used  to 
accompany  his  mother  when  she  went  about  the  small  cot- 
tages, performing  purifications,  and  that  he  used  to  read  the 
formula,  and  that  he  used  also  to  keep  a  school  with  his  father 
at  very  low  terms.  Also,  that  he,  as  well  as  one  of  his 
brothers,  was  a  most  profligate  man  in  his  morals,  and  that  he 
used  to  live  with  Leontium,  the  courtesan.  Moreover,  that  he 
claimed  the  books  of  Democritus  on  Atoms,  and  that  of  Aris- 
tippus  on  Pleasure,  as  his  own  ;  and  that  he  was  not  a  legiti- 
mate citizen ;  and  this  last  fact  is  asserted  also  by  Timocrates, 
and  by  Herodotus,  in  his  treatise  on  the  Youth  of  Epicurus. 

They  also  say  that  he  used  to  flatter  Mithras,  the  steward 
of  Lysimachus,  in  a  disgraceful  manner,  calling  him  in  his  let- 
ters Paean,  and  King ;  and  also  that  he  flattered  Idomeneus, 


172  EPICURUS. 

and  Herodotus,  and  Tiinocrates  who  had  revealed  all  his  secret 
practices,  and  that  he  flattered  them  on  this  very  account. 
And  in  his  letters  to  Leontium,  he  says,  "  0  king  Apollo,  my 
dear  Leontium,  what  transports  of  joy  did  I  feel  when  I  read 
your  charming  letter."  And  to  Themista,  the  wife  of  Leon- 
tius,  he  writes,  "  I  am  ready  and  prepared,  if  you  do  not  come 
to  me,  to  roll  myself  to  wherever  you  and  Themista  invite 
me."  And  he  addresses  Pythocles,  a  beautiful  youth,  thus, 
u  I  will  sit  quiet,"  says  he,  "  awaiting  your  longed-for  and 
god-like  approach."  And  at  another  time,  writing  to  The- 
mista, he  says,  "  That  he  had  determined  to  make  his  way 
with  her." 

He  also  wrote  to  many  other  courtesans,  and  especially  to 
Leontium,  with  whom  Metrodorus  also  was  in  love.  And  in 
his  treatise  on  the  Chief  Good,  he  writes  thus,  "  For  I  do  not 
know  what  I  can  consider  good,  if  I  put  out  of  sight  the 
pleasures  which  arise  from  favors,  and  those  which  are  derived 
from  amatory  pleasures,  and  from  music,  and  from  the  con- 
templation of  beauty."  And  in  his  letter  to  Pythocles,  he 
writes,  "  And,  my  dear  boy,  avoid  all  sorts  of  education." 

Epictetus  also  attacks  him  as  a  most  debauched  man,  and 
reproaches  him  most  vehemently,  and  so  does  Timocrates, 
the  brother  of  Metrodorus,  in  his  treatise  entitled  the  Merry 
Guests,  and  this  Timocrates  had  been  a  disciple  in  his  school, 
though  he  afterwards  abandoned  it;  and  he  says  that  he 
used  to  vomit  twice  a  day,  in  consequence  of  his  intemperance ; 
and  that  he  himself  had  great  difficulty  in  escaping  from  this 
nocturnal  philosophy,  and  that  mystic  kind  of  re-union.  He 
also  accuses  Epicurus  of  shameful  ignorance  in  his  reasoning, 
and  still  more  especially  in  all  matters  relating  to  the  conduct 
of  life.  And  says  that  he  was  in  a  pitiable  state  of  health,  so 
that  he  could  not  for  many  years  rise  up  from  his  sofa ;  and 
that  he  used  to  spend  a  rninae  a  day  on  his  eating,  as  he  him- 
self states  in  his  letter  to  Leontium,  and  in  that  to  the  phi- 
losophers at  Mitylene.  He  also  says  that  many  courtesans 


EPICURUS.  173 

used  to  live  with  him  and  Metrodorus;  and  among  them 
Marmaricem,  and  Hedea,  and  Erotium,  and  ISTicidium. 

And  in  the  thirty-seven  books  which  he  wrote  about  natu- 
ral philosophy,  they  say  that  he  says  a  great  many  things  of  the 
same  kind  over  and  over  again,  and  that  in  them  he  writes  in 
contradiction  of  other  philosophers,  and  especially  of  Nausi- 
phanes,  and  speaks  as  follows,  word  for  word :  "  But  if  any 
one  else  ever  was  afflicted  in  such  a  manner,  then  certainly 
this  man  had  a  continual  labor,  striving  to  bring  forth  the 
sophistical  boastfulness  of  his  mouth,  like  many  other  slaves." 
And  Epicurus  also  speaks  of  Nausiphanes  in  his  letters,  in  the 
following  terms  :  "  These  things  led  him  on  to  such  arrogance 
of  mind,  that  he  abused  me  and  called  me  a  schoolmaster." 
He  used  also  to  call  him  Lungs,  and  Blockhead,  and  Humbug, 
and  Fornicator.  And  he  used  to  call  Plato's  followers  Flat- 
terers of  Dionysius,  but  Plato  himself  he  called  Golden. 
Aristotle  he  called  a  debauchee  and  a  glutton,  saying  that  he 
joined  the  army  after  he  had  squandered  his  patrimony,  and 
sold  drugs.  He  used  also  to  call  Protagoras  a  porter,  and  the 
secretary  of  Democritus,  and  to  say  that  he  taught  boys  their 
letters  in  the  streets.  Heraclitus  he  called  a  disturber ; 
Democritus,  he  nicnarned  Lerocrates  ;*  and  Antidorus,  Sseni- 
dorus.t  The  Cynics  he  called  enemies  of  Greece;  and  the 
Dialecticians  he  charged  with  being  eaten  up  with  envy. 
Pyrrho,  he  said,  was  ignorant  and  unlearned. 

But  these  men  who  say  this  are  all  wrong,  for  there  are 
plenty  of  witnesses  of  the  unsurpassable  kindness  of  the  man 
to  everybody ;  both  his  own  country  which  honored  him  with 
brazen  statues,  and  his  friends  who  were  so  numerous  that 
they  could  not  be  contained  in  whole  cities ;  and  all  his  ac- 
quaintances who  were  bound  to  him  by  nothing  but  the  charms 
of  his  doctrine,  none  of  whom  ever  deserted  him,  except  Me- 

'  That  is  "  trifler,"  from  krino,  to  judge  ;  and  leros,  nonsensical  talk. 
f  That  is,  flattering  for  gifts ;  from  saino,  to  wag  the  tail  as  a  dog,  to  caress  ; 
and  rforon,  a  gift. 

15* 


174  EPICURUS. 

trodorus,  the  son  of  Stratonicetis,  who  went  over  to  Carneades, 
probably  because  he  was  not  able  to  bear  with  equanimity  the 
unapproachable  excellence  of  Epicurus.  Also,  the  perpetual 
succession  of  his  school,  which,  when  every  other  school  de- 
cayed, continued  without  any  falling  off,  and  produced  a  count- 
less number  of  philosophers,  succeeding  one  another  without 
any  interruption.  We  may  also  speak  here  of  his  gratitude 
towards  his  parents,  and  his  beneficence  to  his  brothers,  and 
his  gentleness  to  his  servants  (as  is  plain  from  his  will,  and 
from  the  fact  too,  that  they  united  with  him  in  his  philosophi- 
cal studies,  and  the  most  eminent  of  them  was  the  one  whom 
I  have  mentioned  already,  named  Inus);  and  his  universal 
philanthropy  towards  all  men. 

His  piety  towards  the  Gods,  and  his  affection  for  his  country 
was  quite  unspeakable ;  though,  from  an  excess  of  modesty,  he 
avoided  affairs  of  state.  And  though  he  lived  when  very  di- 
ficult  times  oppressed  Greece,  he  still  remained  in  his  own 
country,  only  going  two  or  three  times  across  to  Ionia  to  see 
his  friends,  who  used  to  throng  to  him  from  all  quarters,  and 
to  live  with  him  in  his  garden,  as  we  are  told  by  Apollodorus, 
(This  garden  he  bought  for  eighty  minse.) 

And  Diocles,  in  the  third  book  of  his  Excursion,  says  that 
they  all  lived  in  the  most  simple  and  economical  manner ; 
"  They  were  content,"  says  he,  "  with  a  small  cup  of  light 
wine,  and  all  the  rest  of  their  drink  was  water."  He  also  tells 
us  that  Epicurus  would  not  allow  his  followers  to  throw  their 
property  into  a  common  stock,  as  Pythagoras  did,  who  said 
that  the  possessions  of  friends  were  held  in  common.  For  he 
said  that  such  a  doctrine  as  that  was  suited  rather  for  those 
who  distrusted  one  another ;  and  that  those  who  distrusted 
one  another  were  not  friends.  But  he  himself  in  his  letters, ' 
says  that  he  is  content  with  water  and  plain  bread,  and  adds, 
u  Send  me  some  Cytherean  cheese,  that  if  I  wish  to  have  a 
feast,  I  may  have  the  means."  This  was  the  real  character  of 


EPICURUS.  175 

the  man  who  laid  down  the   doctrine  that  pleasure  was  the 
chief  good  ;  whom  Atheneeus  thus  mentions  ia  an  epigram : — 

O  men,  you  labor  for  pernicious  ends  ; 
And  out  of  eager  avarice,  begin 
Quarrels  and  wars.     And  yet  the  wealth  of  nature 
«  Fixes  a  narrow  limit  for  desires, 

Though  empty  judgment  is  insatiable. 
This  lesson  the  wise  child  of  Neocles 
Had  learnt  by  heart,  instructed  by  the  Muses, 
Or  at  the  sacred  shrine  of  Delphi's  God. 

And  as  we  advance  further,  we  shall  learn  this  fact  from  his 
dogmas,  and  his  apophthegms. 

He  uses  in  his  works  plain  language  with  respect  to  any- 
thing he  is  speaking  of,  for  which  Aristophanes,  the  gram- 
marian, blames  him,  on  the  ground  of  that  style  being  vulgar. 
But  he  was  such  an  admirer  of  perspicuity,  that  even  in  his 
treatise  on  Khetoric,  he  aims  at  and  recommends  nothing  but 
clearness  of  expression.  And  in  his  letters,  instead  of  the 
usual  civil  expressions,  "  Greeting,"  "  Farewell,"  and  so  on, 
he  substitutes,  "  May  you  act  well,"  "  May  you  live  virtuously," 
and  expressions  of  that  sort. 

He  came  to  Athens,  and  he  died  there  in  the  second  year 
of  the  hundred  and  twenty-seventh  Olympiad,  in  the  archon- 
ship  of  Pytharatus,  when  he  had  lived  seventy-two  years. 

He  died  of  the  stone,  after  having  been  ill  a  fortnight ;  and 
at  the  end  of  the  fortnight,  Herrnippus  says  that  he  went 
into  a  brazen  bath,  properly  tempered  with  warm  water,  and 
asked  for  a  cup  of  pure  wine,  and  drank  it ;  and  having  rec- 
ommended his  friends  to  remember  his  doctrines,  he  expired. 
And  there  is  an  epigram  of  ours  on  him,  couched  in  the  fol- 
lowing language : — 

Now  fare  ye  well,  remember  all  my  words  ; 
This  was  the  dying  charge  of  Epicurus : 
Then  to  the  bath  he  went,  and  drank  some  wine, 
And  sank  beneath  the  cold  embrace  of  Pluto. 


176  EPICURUS. 

And  -w  hen  he  was  at  the  point  of  death,  he  wrote  the  fol- 
lowing letter  to  Idomeneus  : — 

"  We  have  written  this  letter  to  you  on  a  happy  day  to  us, 
which  is  also  the  last  day  of  our  life.  For  strangury  has  at- 
tacked me,  and  also  a  dysentery  so  violent,  that  nothing  can 
be  added  to  the  violence  of  my  sufferings.  But  the  ^cheerful- 
ness of  my  mind,  which  arises  from  the  recollection  of  all  my 
philosophical  contemplations,  counterbalances  all  these  afflic- 
tions. And  I  beg  you  to  take  care  of  the  children  of  Metro- 
dorus,  in  a  manner  worthy  of  the  devotion  shown  by  the 
youth  to  me,  and  to  philosophy." 

In  his  last  will  and  testament  he  bequeathed  freedom  to  four 
of  his  slaves. 

Epicurus  was  a  most  voluminous  author,  exceeding  all  men 
in  the  number  of  his  books,  for  there  are  more  than  three 
hundred  volumes  of  them  ;  and  in  the  whole  of  them  there  is 
not  one  citation  from  other  sources,  but  they  are  filled  wholly 
with  the  sentiments  of  Epicurus  himself.  In  the  quantity  of 
his  writings  he  was  rivalled  by  Ohrysippus,  as  Carneades  as- 
serts, who  calls  him  a  parasite  of  the  books  of  Epicurus  ;  for 
if  ever  this  latter  wrote  anything,  Ohrysippus  immediately 
set  his  heart  on  writing  a  book  of  equal  size  ;  and  in  this  way 
he  often  wrote  the  same  thing  over  again,  putting  down  what- 
ever came  into  his  head ;  and  he  published  it  all  without  any 
corrections,  by  reason  of  his  haste.  And  he  quotes  such 
numbers  of  testimonies  from  other  authors,  that  his  books  are 
entirely  filled  with  them  alone ;  as  one  may  find  also  in  the 
works  of  Aristotle  and  Zeno. 

His  description  of  a  wise  man  is  as  follows :  He  said  that 
injuries  existed  among  men,  either  in  consequence  of  hatred, 
or  of  envy,  or  of  contempt,  all  of  which  the  wise  man  over- 
comes by  reason.  Also,  that  a  man  who  has  once  been  wise 
can  never  receive  the  contrary  disposition,  nor  can  he  of  his 
own  accord  invent  such  a  state  of  things  as  that  he  should  be 
subjected  to  the  dominion  of  the  passions ;  nor  can  he  hinder 


EPICURUS.  177 

himself  in  his  progress  towards  wisdom.  That  the  wise  man, 
however,  cannot  exist  in  every  state  of  body,  nor  in  every 
nation.  That  even  if  the  wise  man  were  to  be  put  to  the  tor- 
ture, he  would  still  be  happy.  That  the  wise  man  will  only 
feel  gratitude  to  his  friends,  but  to  them  equally  whether  they 
are  present  or  absent.  Nor  will  he  groan  and  howl  when  he 
is  put  to  the  torture.  Nor  will  he  marry  a  wife  whom  the 
laws  forbid,  as  Diogenes  says  in  his  epitome  of  the  Ethical 
Maxims  of  Epicurus.  He  will  punish  his  servants,  but  also 
pity  them,  and  show  indulgence  to  any  that  are  virtuous. 
They  do  not  think  that  the  wise  man  will  ever  be  in  love,  nor 
that  he  will  be  anxious  about  his  burial,  nor  that  love  is  a 
passion  inspired  by  the  Gods,  as  Diogenes  says  in  his  twelfth 
book.  They  also  assert  that  he  will  be  indifferent  to  the  study 
of  oratory.  Marriage,  say  they,  is  never  any  good  to  a  man, 
and  we  must  be  quite  content  if  it  does  no  harm  ;  and  the 
wise  man  will  never  marry  or  beget  children,  as  Epicurus 
himself  lays  it  down  in  his  Doubts,  and  in  his  treatises  on 
Nature.  Still,  under  certain  circumstances  of  life,  he  will 
forsake  these  rules,  and  marry.  Nor  will  he  ever  indulge  in 
drunkenness,  says  Epicurus  in  his  Banquet,  nor  will  he  entan- 
gle himself  in  affairs  of  state.  Nor  will  he  become  a  tyrant. 
Nor  will  he  become  a  Cynic.  Nor  a  beggar.  And  even 
though  he  should  lose  his  eyes,  he  will  still  partake  of  life. 

The  wise  man  will  be  subject  to  grief,  as  Diogenes  says,  he 
will  also  not  object  to  go  to  law.  He  will  leave  books  and 
memorials  of  himself  behind  him,  but  he  will  not  be  fond  of 
frequenting  assemblies.  He  will  take  care  of  his  property, 
and  provide  for  the  future.  He  will  like  being  in  the  country, 
he  will  resist  fortune,  and  will  grieve  none  of  his  friends.  He 
will  show  a  regard  for  a  fair  reputation  to  such  an  extent  as  to 
avoid  being  despised ;  and  he  will  find  more  pleasure  than 
other  men  in  speculations. 

All  faults  are  not  equal.  Health  is  good  for  some  people- 
but  a  matter  of  indifference  .to  others.  Courage  is  a  quality 


178  EPICURUB. 

which  does  not  exist  by  nature,  but  which  is  engendered  by  a 
consideration  of  what  is  suitable.  Friendship  is  caused  by 
one's  wants ;  but  it  must  be  begun  on  one  side.  For  we  sow 
the  earth ;  and  friendship  arises  from  a  community  of,  and 
participation  in,  pleasure.  Happiness  must  be  understood  in 
two  senses ;  the  highest  happiness,  such  as  is  that  of  God, 
which  admits  of  no  increase ;  and  another  kind,  which  admits 
of  the  addition  or  abstraction  of  pleasures.  The  wise  man 
may  raise  statues  if  it  suits  his  inclination,  if  it  does  not  it  does 
not  signify.  The  wise  man  is  the  only  person  who  can  con- 
verse correctly  about  music  and  poetry ;  and  he  can  realize 
poems,  but  not  become  a  poet. 

It  is  possible  for  one  wise  man  to  be  wiser  than  another. 
The  wise  man  will  also,  if  he  is  in  need,  earn  money,  but  only 
by  his  wisdom ;  he  will  propitiate  an  absolute  ruler  when  oc- 
casion requires,  and  will  humor  him  for  the  sake  of  correct- 
ing his  habits;  he  will  have  a  school,  but  not  on  such  a  sys- 
tem as  to  draw  a  crowd  about  him  ;  he  will  also  recite  in  a 
multitude,  but  that  will  be  against  his  inclination  ;  he  will 
pronounce  dogmas,  and  will  express  no  doubts ;  he  will  be  the 
same  man  asleep  and  awake ;  and  he  will  be  willing  even  to 
die  for  a  friend. 

Amongst  his  fundamental  maxims  are  the  following : — 

No  pleasure  is  intrinsically  bad :  but  the  efficient  causes  of 
some  pleasures  bring  with  them  a  great  many  perturbations  of 
pleasure. 

Irresistible  power  and  great  wealth  may,  up  to  a  certain 
point,  give  us  security  as  far  as  men  are  concerned ;  but  the 
security  of  men  in  general  depends  upon  the  tranquillity  of 
their  souls,  and  their  freedom  from  ambition. 

He  who  desires  to  live  tranquilly  without  having  anything 
to  fear  from  other  men,  ought  to  make  himself  friends  ;  those 
whom  he  cannot  make  friends  of,  he  should,  at  least,,  avoid 
rendering  enemies ;  and  if  that  is  not  in  his  power,  he  should, 


EPICURUS.  179 

as  far  as  possible,  avoid  all  intercourse  with  them,  and  keep 
them  aloof,  as  far  as  it  is  for  his  interest  to  do  so. 

Of  all  the  things  which  wisdom  provides  for  the  happiness 
of  the  whole  life,  by  far  the  most  important  is  the  acquisition 
of  friendship. 

It  is  not  possible  to  live  pleasantly  without  living  prudently, 
and  honorably,  and  justly :  nor  to  live  prudently,  and  hon- 
orably, and  justly,  withou*  living  pleasantly.  But  he  to  whom 
it  does  not  happen  to  live  prudently,  honorably,  and  justly, 
cannot  possibly  live  pleasantly. 

Thus  much  concerning  this  philosopher,  we  have  taken  from 
Laertius.  Brucker  adds  the  following : 

During  the  siege  of  Athens  by  Demetrius,  which  happened 
when  Epicurus  was  forty-four  years  of  age,  while  the  city  was 
severely  harassed  by  famine,  Epicurus  is  said  to  have  sup- 
ported himself  and  his  friends  on  a  small  quantity  of  beans, 
which  he  shared  equally  with  them. 

The  luxurious  refinement  which  prevailed  in  Athens,  while 
it  rendered  every  rigid  scheme  of  philosophy,  as  well  as  all 
grossness  of  manners,  unpopular,  inclined  the  younger  citizens 
to  listen  to  a  preceptor,  who  smoothed  the  stern  and  wrinkled 
brow  of  philosophy,  and,  under  the  notion  of  conducting  his 
followers  to  enjoyment  in  the  bower  of  tranquillity,  led  them 
unawares  into  the  paths  of  moderation  and  virtue.  Hence  his 
school  became  exceedingly  popular,  and  disciples  flocked  into 
the  garden,  not  only  from  different  parts  of  Greece,  but  from 
Egypt  and  Asia.  Seneca,  though  a  Stoic  philosopher,  bears 
this  testimony  to  Epicurus:  "  I  the  more  freely  quote  the  ex- 
cellent maxims  of  Epicurus,  in  order  to  convince  those  who  be- 
come his  followers  from  the  hope  of  screening  their  vices,  that 
to  whatever  sect  they  attach  themselves,  they  must  live  vir- 
tuously. Even  at  the  entrance  of  the  garden  they  will  find 
this  inscription  'the  hospitable  keeper  of  this  mansion, 
where  you  will  find  pleasure  the  highest  good,  will  present 
you  liberally  with  barley  cakes  and  water  from  the  spring. 


180  EPICURUS. 

These  gardens  will  not  provoke  your  appetite  by  artificial 
dainties,  but  satisfy  it  with  natural  supplies.  Will  you  not 
then  be  well  entertained  ?'  " 

Those  disciples  who  were  regularly  admitted  into  the  school 
of  Epicurus,  lived  together,  not  in  the  manner  of  the  Pytha- 
gorians,  who  cast  their  possessions  into  a  common  stock,  for 
this,  in  his  opinion,  implied  mutual  distrust,  rather  than  friend- 
ship ;  but  upon  such  a  footing  of  friendly  attachment,  that  each 
individual  cheerfully  supplied  the  necessities  of  his  brother. 
And  this  was  no  difficult  task,  not  only  on  account  of  the 
smallness  of  the  expenses  attending  their  frugal  manner 
of  living,  but  because  the  most  cordial  affection  subsisted 
among  them.  The  friendship  of  the  Epicurean  fraternity  is 
described  by  Cicero  as  unequalled  in  the  history  of  mankind ; 
and  Valerius  Maximus  relates  a  memorable  example  of  indis- 
soluble friendship  between  Poly  crates  and  Hippoclides,  two 
philosophers  of  the  garden. 

Epicurus,  that  he  might  prosecute  his  philosophical  labors 
with  the  less  interruption,  lived  in  a  state  of  celibacy.  In  his 
own  conduct  he  was  exemplary  for  temperance  and  conti- 
nence, and  he  inculcated  upon  his  followers  serenity  of  man- 
ners, and  the  strict  government  of  the  passions,  as  the  best 
means  of  passing  a  tranquil  and  happy  life.  Notwithstanding 
his  regular  manner  of  living,  towards  the  close  of  his  days, 
probably  in  consequence  of  his  close  application  to  study,  his 
constitution  became  infirm,  and  he  was  afflicted  with  the  stone, 
of  which,  after  great  suffering,  he  died. 

Not  only  did  the  immediate  followers  of  Epicurus  adorn 
the  memory  of  their  master  with  the  highest  honors,  but 
many  eminent  writers,  who  have  disapproved  his  philosophy, 
have  expressed  great  respect  for  his  personal  merit.  Never- 
theless, it  cannot  be  denied,  that  from  the  time  when  this  phi- 
losopher appeared  to  the  present  day,  an  uninterrupted  course 
of  censure  has  fallen  upon  his  memory  ;  so  that  the  name  of 
his  sect  has  almost  become  a  proverbial  expression  for  every- 


EPICURUS.  181 

thing  corrupt  in  principles,  and  infamous  in  character.  The 
charges  brought  against  Epicurus  are,  that  he  superseded  all 
religious  principles,  by  dismissing  the  Gods  from  the  care  of 
the  world ;  that,  if  he  acknowledged  their  existence,  it  was 
only  in  conformity  to  popular  prejudice,  since,  according  to 
his  system,  nothing  exists  in  nature  but  material  atoms  ;  that 
he  discovered  great  insolence  and  vanity  in  the  disrespect  with 
which  he  treated  the  memory  of  former  philosophers,  and  the 
characters  and  persons  of  his  cotemporaries ;  that  both  the 
master  and  the  whole  fraternity  were  addicted  to  the  vilest 
and  most  infamous  vices,  so  that  the  school  ought  not  to  have 
been  called  a  garden,  but  a  sty;  and,  in  short,  that  this  phi- 
losopher and  his  followers  relinquished  all  liberal  studies  and 
manly  pursuits,  that  they  might  devote  themselves  to  the 
grossest  impieties  and  debaucheries.  These  accusations  against 
the  Epicurean  school  have  been  not  only  the  voice  of  common 
rumor,  but  have  been  more  or  less  confirmed  by  men  distin- 
guished for  their  wisdom  and  virtue  ;  Zeno,  Cicero,  Plutarch, 
Galen,  and  a  long  train  of  Christian  Fathers.  So  that  if  the 
question  were  to  be  determined  by  the  number  of  accusers, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Epicurus  and  his  followers  must 
be  condemned.  But  if  the  cause  be  examined  with  impar- 
tiality ;  if  the  credit  of  the  witnesses  against  Epicurus  be 
thoroughly  canvassed ;  if  the  causes  of  the  spirit  of  invective 
raised  against  him  be  duly  considered  ;  and  if  the  evidences 
on  the  other  side  be  allowed  a  fair  hearing,  it  will  perhaps  be 
found  that  this  philosopher,  though  in  some  respects  highly 
censurable,  has  been  in  several  others  severely  and  unjustly 
condemned. 

Calumny  never  appeared  with  greater  effrontery  than  in 
accusing  Epicurus  of  intemperance  and  incontinence.  That 
his  character  was  distinguished  by  the  contrary  virtues,  ap- 
pears not  only  from  the  numerous  attestations  adduced  by 
Laertius,  but  even  from  the  confession  of  the  more  respectable 
opponents  of  his  doctrine,  particularly  Cicero,  Plutarch,  and 

16 


182  EPIMENIDES. 

Seneca.  And  indeed,  without  any  external  evidence,  this  is 
sufficiently  clear,  from  the  particulars  which  are  related  con- 
cerning his  usual  manner  of  living.  Ohrysippus  himself,  one 
of  his  most  violent  enemies  among  the  Stoics,  acknowledged 
that  Epicurus  discovered  little  inclination  towards  sexual 
pleasures.  Nothing  can  be  a  greater  proof  that  his  adver- 
saries had  little  to  allege  against  his  innocence,  than  that  they 
were  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  forgery.  The  infamous  let- 
ters which  Diotimus,  or  according  to  Athenseus,  Theotimus, 
ascribed  to  him,  were  proved  in  a  public  court,  to  have  been 
fraudulently  imposed  upon  the  world,  and  the  author  of  the 
imposition  was  punished.  Whatever  might  be  the  case  after- 
wards, there  is  little  reason  to  doubt  that  during  the  life  of 
Epicurus  his  garden  was  rather  a  school  of  temperance,  than 
a  scene  of  riot  and  debauchery. 

After  the  death  of  Epicurus,  his  followers  celebrated  his 
birth-day  as  a  festival.  They  preserved  his  image  on  their 
rings  or  cups,  or  in  pictures,  which  they  carried  about  their 
persons,  or  hung  up  in  their  chambers.  So  great  was  their 
reverence  for  his  authority,  and  their  regard  to  his  dying  ad- 
vice, that  they  committed  his  maxims,  and  some  of  them  the 
whole  body  of  his  instructions,  to  memory.  For  several  ages 
they  adhered  with  wonderful  unanimity  to  his  system,  yield- 
ing as  implicit  submission  to  his  decisions  as  the  Athenians  or 
Spartans  ever  yielded  to  the  laws  of  Solon  or  Lycurgns.  They 
carried  this  point  so  far,  that  it  was  deemed  a  kind  of  impiety 
to  innovate  upon  his  doctrine ;  so  that  the  Epicureans  formed 
a  Philosophical  Kepublic,  regulated  by  one  judgment,  and  ani- 
mated by  one  soul. 


EPIMENIDES. 

EPIMENIDES  was  a  Cretan  by  birth,  but,  because  he  allowed 
his  hair  to  grow  long,  he  did  not  resemble  a  Cretan.     It  is 


EPIMENIDEB.  183 

said  of  him  that  he  was  sent  by  his  father  into  the  fields  to 
look  for  a  sheep,  and  he  turned  out  of  the  road  at  midday,  and 
lay  down  in  a  certain  cave  and  fell  asleep,  and  slept  there 
fifty-seven  years ;  and  after  that,  when  he  awoke,  he  went  on 
looking  for  the  sheep,  thinking  that  he  had  been  taking  a 
ehort  nap ;  but  as  he  could  not  find  it,  he  went  on  to  the  field, 
and  there  he  found  every  thing  changed,  and  the  estate  in 
another  person's  possession,  and  so  he  came  back  again  to  the 
city  in  great  perplexity ;  and  as  he  was  going  into  his  own 
house  he  met  some  people,  who  asked  him  who  he  was,  until 
at  last  he  found  his  younger  brother,  who  had  now  become 
an  old  man,  and  from  him  he  learnt  all  the  truth. 

When  he  was  recognized,  he  was  considered  by  the  Greeks 
as  a  person  especially  beloved  by  the  Gods,  on  which  account, 
when  the  Athenians  were  afflicted  by  a  plague,  and  the 
priestess  at  Delphi  enjoined  them  to  purify  their  city,  they 
sent  a  ship  and  Nicias,  the  son  of  Niceratus,  to  Crete,  to  in- 
vite Epimenides  to  Athens;  and  he,  coming  there  in  the  forty- 
sixth  Olympiad,  purified  the  city,  and  eradicated  the  plague 
for  that  time.  He  took  some  black  sheep  and  some  white 
ones,  and  led  them  up  to  the  Areopagus,  and  from  thence  he 
let  them  go  wherever  they  chose,  having  ordered  the  attend- 
ants to  follow  them  ;  and  wherever  any  one  of  them  lay  down, 
they  were  to  sacrifice  him  to  the  God  who  was  the  patron  of 
the  spot,  and  so  the  evil  was  stayed ;  and  owing  to  this,  one 
may  even  now  find  in  the  different  boroughs  of  the  Athen- 
ians, altars  without  names,  which  are  a  sort  of  memorial  of 
the  propitiation  of  the  Gods  that  then  took  place.  Some  said 
that  the  cause  of  the  plague  was  the  pollution  contracted  by 
the  city  in  the  matter  of  Cylon,  and  that  Epimenides  pointed 
out  to  the  Athenians  how  to  get  rid  of  it;  and  that  in  con- 
sequence, they  put  to  death  two  young  men,  Cretinus  and 
Ctesilius,  and  that  thus  the  pestilence  was  put  an  end  to. 

And  the  Athenians  passed  a  vote  to  give  him  a  talent  and 
a  ship  to  convey  him  back  to  Crete  ;  but  he  would  not  accept 


184  EPIMENIDES. 

the  money,  but  made  a  treaty  of  friendship  and  alliance  be- 
tween the  Gnossians  and  Athenians. 

Not  long  after  he  had  returned  home  he  died,  as  Phlegon 
relates  in  his  book  on  long-lived  people,  after  he  had  lived  a 
hundred  and  fifty-seven  years ;  but,  as  the  Cretans  report,  he 
had  lived  two  hundred  and  ninety -nine  ;  but,  as  Xenophones, 
the  Colophonian,  states  that  he  had  heard  it  reported,  he  was 
a  hundred  and  fifty-four  years  old  when  he  died. 

The  story  of  his  long  sleep  is  denied  by  some,  who  assert, 
that  during  that  period  he  was  absent  from  his  country,  pur- 
suing botanical  studies. 

Brucker  refers  to  him  in  the  following  language  :  Another 
idle  story  of  this  Cretan  is,  that  he  had  the  power  of  sending 
his  soul  out  of  his  body,  and  recalling  it  at  pleasure.  It  is 
added,  that  he  had  familiar  intercourse  with  the  Gods,  and 
possessed  the  powers  of  prophecy.  During  a  plague  in  Attica, 
the  Athenians  sent  for  him  to  perform  a  sacred  lustration,  in 
consequence  of  which,  it  is  said  that  the  Gods  were  appeased, 
and  the  plague  ceased.  He  is  reported  to  have  lived,  after  his 
return  to  Crete,  to  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven 
years.  We  probably  owe  most  of  these  tales  to  the  Cretans, 
who  were,  to  a  proverb,  famous  for  their  powers  of  invention. 
All  that  is  credible  concerning  Epimenides  is,  that  he  was  a 
man  of  superior  talents,  who  pretended  to  intercourse  with 
the  Gods,  and,  to  support  his  pretensions,  lived  in  retirement 
upon  the  spontaneous  productions  of  the  earth,  and  practised 
various  arts  of  imposture.  Perhaps,  in  his  hours  of  pretended 
inspiration,  he  had  the  art  of  appearing  totally  insensible  and 
entranced,  which  would  easily  be  mistaken  by  ignorant  spec- 
tators for  a  power  of  dismissing  and  recalling  his  spirit.  Solon, 
in  whose  time  the  lustration  above  named  was  performed, 
seems  to  have  been  no  stranger  to  the  true  character  of 
Epimenides ;  for  we  find  that  he  greatly  disapproved  of  the 
conduct  of  the  Athenians  in  employing  him  to  perform  this 
ceremony.  Divine  honors  were  paid  him,  after  his  death,  by 
the  superstitious  Cretans. 


KRIGENA.  185 


ERIGENA. 

JOAKNES  SCOTTJS,  surnamed  Erigena,  is  said  by  some  writers 
to  have  been  a  native  of  the  town  of  Ayr  in  Scotland,  and 
by  others  to  have  been  born  in  Herefordshire.  For  his 
profound  knowledge  of  philosophy,  he  obtained  among  the 
writers  of  the  Middle  Age  the  appellation  of  Scotus  the  Wise. 
The  fame  of  his  learning  reached  Charles  the  Bald,  who  in- 
vited him  into  France,  admitted  him  to  his  intimacy,  and  gave 
him  the  direction  of  the  University  of  Paris.  But  a  circum- 
stance soon  afterwards  arose,  which  brought  upon  him  much 
obloquy  and  persecution.  The  Greek  emperor,  Michael  the 
Stammerer,  had,  in  the  year  824,  sent  over,  as  a  present  of 
inestimable  value  to  the  Western  emperor,  Lewis  the  Mild, 
the  treatises  of  the  supposed  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  which 
had  long  been  held  in  great  veneration  among  the  Greek 
Christians.  This  book,  Charles  the  Bald,  who  could  not  read 
Greek,  was  earnestly  desirous  of  perusing  in  a  Latin  transla- 
tion. This  desire  was  doubtless  increased  by  the  opinion 
which  at  this  time  universally  prevailed,  though  without  any 
proof,  that  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  or  St.  Denys,  was  the 
first  Christian  teacher,  or  apostle,  in  France.  At  the  request 
of  the  emperor,  Joannes  Scotus  undertook  the  task  of  trans- 
lating the  books  of  this  Dionysius,  "  On  the  Celestial  Mon- 
archy ;"  "  On  the  Ecclesiastical  Hierarchy ;"  "  On  Divine 
Names ;"  and  "  On  Mystic  Theology."  These  books  were  re- 
ceived with  great  eagerness  by  the  Western  churches.  The 
translation,  however,  being  made  without  the  pope's  license, 
and  containing  many  things  contrary  to  the  received  faith  of 
the  Church  of  Rome,  the  pope,  Nicholas  the  First,  was  highly 
displeased,  and  wrote  a  threatening  letter  to  the  emperor,  re- 
quiring that  Scotus  should  be  banished  from  the  University  of 
Paris,  and  sent  to  Rome.  The  emperor  had  too  much  respect 
for  Scotus  to  obey  the  pope's  order  ;  but  Scotus  thought  it  ad- 

16* 


186  EUBULIDES. 

visable  for  his  safety  to  retire  from  Paris,  and  after  the  death 
of  the  emperor  is  said  to  have  returned  into  England. 

It  was  the  translation  of  this  book  which  revived  the  knowl- 
edge of  Alexandrian  Platonism  in  the  West,  and  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  mystical  system  of  theology  which  after- 
wards so  generally  prevailed.  Thus  philosophical  enthusiasm, 
born  in  the  East,  nourished  by  Plato,  educated  by  Alexandria, 
matured  in  Asia,  and  adopted  into  the  Greek  church,  found 
its  way,  under  the  pretext  and  authority  of  an  apostolic  name, 
into  the  Western  church,  and  there  produced  innumerable  mis- 
chiefs. 


EUBULIDES. 

ETJBULIDES,  of  Miletus,  has  handed  down  a  great  many  argu- 
ments or  dialectics,  such  as  the  Lying  one  ;  the  Concealed  one ; 
the  Electra ;  the  Sorites ;  the  Horned  one ;  the  Bald  one,  &c. 

The  Lying  one  is  this : — Is  the  man  a  liar  who  says  that  he 
tells  lies.  If  he  is,  then  he  does  not  tell  lies  ;  and  if  he  does 
not  tell  lies,  is  he  a  liar  ? 

The  Concealed  one : — Do  you  know  this  man  who  is  con- 
cealed ?  If  you  do  not,  you  do  not  know  your  own  father ; 
for  he  it  is  who  is  concealed. 

The  Electra  is  a  quibble  of  the  same  kind  as  the  two  pre- 
ceding ones  :  Electra  sees  Orestes  :  she  knows  that  Orestes  is 
her  brother,  but  does  not  know  that  the  man  she  sees  is 
Orestes ;  therefore  she  does  know,  and  does  not  know,  her 
brother  at  the  same  time. 

The  Sorites  is  universally  known. 

The  Bald  one  is  a  kind  of  Sorites  ;  pulling  one  hair  out  of 
a  man's  head  will  not  make  him  bald,  nor  two,  nor  three,  and 
so  on  till  every  hair  in  his  head  is  pulled  out. 

The  Horned  one  : — You  have  what  you  have  not  lost.  You 
have  not  lost  horns,  therefore  you  have  horns. 


EUCLID.  187 

A  different  translation  of  some  of  these  is  given  as  follows : 
The  Lying :  if,  when  you  speak  the  truth,  you  say  you  lie, 
you  lie  ;  but  you  say  you  lie  when  you  speak  the  truth  ;  there- 
fore, in  speaking  the  truth,  you  lie.  The  Occult.  Do  you 
know  yonr  father?  Yes.  Do  you  know  this  man  who  is 
veiled  ?  No.  Then  you  do  not  know  your  father ;  for  it  is 
your  father  who  is  veiled.  Electra.  Electra,  the  daughter  of 
Agamemnon,  knew  her  brother,  and  did  not  know  him  :  she 
knew  Orestes  to  be  her  brother,  but  she  did  not  know  that 
person  to  be  her  brother  who  was  conversing  with  her. 
Sorites.  Is  one  grain  a  heap?  No.  Two  grains?  No. 
Three  grains  ?  No.  Go  on,  adding  one  by  one  ;  and,  if  one 
grain  be  not  a  heap,  it  will  be  impossible  to  say  what  number 
of  grains  make  a  heap.  The  Horned.  You  have  what  you 
have  not  lost ;  you  have  not  lost  horns ;  therefore  you  have 
horns. — In  such  high  repute  were  these  silly  inventions  for 
perplexing  plain  truth,  that  Chrysippus  wrote  six  books  upon 
the  first  of  these  sophisms ;  and  Philetas,  a  Coan,  died  of  a 
consumption  which  he  contracted  by  the  close  study  which 
he  bestowed  upon  it.  The  inscription  upon  his  tomb  was, 
"  The  deceived."  A  serious  attempt  to  expose  the  futility  of 
these  disputes  would  now  be  justly  deemed  an  idle  waste  of 
time  and  words. 


EUCLID. 

EUCLID  of  Megara,  endued  by  nature  with  a  subtle  and  pene- 
trating genius,  early  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  philoso- 
phy. Hearing  of  the  fame  of  Socrates,  Euclid  determined  to 
attend  upon  his  instructions,  and  for  this  purpose  removed  from 
Megara  to  Athens.  Here  he  long  remained  a  constant  hearer 
and  zealous  disciple  of  the  Moral  Philosopher  ;  and  when,  in 
consequence  of  the  enmity  which  subsisted  between  the  A  then- 


188  EUCLID. 

ians  and  Megareans,  a  decree  was  passed  by  the  former,  that 
any  inhabitant  of  Megara  who  should  be  seen  in  Athens 
should  forfeit  his  life,  he  frequently  came  to  Athens  by  night, 
from  the  distance  of  about  twenty  miles,  concealed  in  a  long 
female  cloak  and  veil,  to  visit  his  master.  Not  finding  his 
natural  propensity  to  disputation  sufficiently  gratified  in  the 
tranquil  method  of  philosophising  adopted  by  Socrates,  he 
frequently  engaged  in  the  business  and  disputes  of  the  civil 
courts.  Socrates,  who  despised  forensic  contests,  expressed 
some  dissatisfaction  with  his  pupil  for  indulging  a  fondness  for 
controversy.  This  circumstance  probably  proved  the  occasion 
of  a  separation  between  Euclid  and  his  master ;  for  we  find 
him,  after  this  time,  at  the  head  of  a  school  in  Megara,  in 
which  his  chief  employment  was  to  teach  the  art  of  disputa- 
tion. Debates  were  conducted  with  so  much  vehemence 
among  his  pupils,  that  Timon  said  of  Euclid,  that  he  had  car- 
ried the  madness  of  contention  from  Athens  to  Megara.  That 
he  was,  however,  capable  of  commanding  his  temper,  appears 
from  his  reply  to  his  brother,  who  in  a  quarrel  had  said,  "  Let 
rne  perish  if  I  be  not  revenged  on  you !"  "  And  let  me  perish," 
returned  Euclid,  "  if  I  do  not  subdue  your  resentment  by  for- 
bearance, and  make  you  love  me  as  much  as  ever  !"  His  kind 
reception  of  the  disciples  of  Socrates,  after  the  death  of  their 
master,  has  been  already  noticed.  Euclid  of  Megara  is  not  to 
be  confounded  with  Euclid  the  mathematician,  who  flourished 
at  a  later  period  under  Ptolemy  Lagus,  and  died  in  the  hun- 
dred and  twenty -third  Olympiad. 

In  disputation  Euclid  was  averse  to  the  analogical  method 
of  reasoning,  and  judged,  that  legitimate  argumentation  con- 
sists in  deducing  fair  conclusions  from  acknowledged  premises. 
It  is  said  that  when  Euclid  was  asked  his  opinion  concerning 
the  gods,  he  replied,  u  I  know  nothing  more  of  them  than  this, 
that  they  hate  inquisitive  persons."  If  this  apophthegm  be 
justly  ascribed  to  Euclid,  it  may  serve  to  prove,  either  that  he 
had  learned  from  the  precepts  of  Socrates  to  think  soberly 


EUDOXU8 EUSEBIUS.  189 

and  respectfully  concerning  the  divine  nature,  or  that  the  fate 
of  that  good  man  had  taught  him  caution  in  declaring  his 
opinions. 


EUDOXUS. 

EUDOXTJS,  a  native  of  Cnidos,  was  an  astronomer,  a  geo- 
metrician, a  physician  and  a  law-giver. 

It  is  said  that  he  introduced  the  fashion  of  sitting  in  a  semi- 
circle, at  an  entertainment  given  by  Plato. 

He  composed  among  other  works  a  book  entitled,  "Dia- 
logues of  Dogs." 

He  flourished  about  the  hundred  and  third  Olympiad ;  and 
was  the  inventor  of  the  theory  of  crooked  lines.  And  he  died 
in  his  fifty-third  year.  But  when  he  was  in  Egypt  with  Conu- 
phis,  of  Heliopolis,  Apis  *  licked  his  garment ;  and  so  the  priests 
said  that  he  would  be  short-lived,  but  very  illustrious,  as  it  is 
reported  by  Phavorinus  in  his  Commentaries.  And  we  have 
written  an  epigram  on  him,  that  runs  thus: — 

'  Tis  said,  that  while  at  Memphis  wise  Eudoxus 
Learnt  his  own  fate  from  th'  holy  fair-horned  bull ; 
He  said  indeed  no  word,  bulls  do  not  speak ; 
Nor  had  kind  nature  e'er  calf  Apia  gifted 
With  an  articulately  speaking  mouth. 
But  standing  on  one  side  he  lick'd  his  cloak, 
Showing  by  this  most  plainly — in  brief  time 
You  shall  put  off  your  life.    So  death  came  soon, 
When  he  had  just  seen  three  and  fifty  times 
The  Pleiads  rise  to  warn  the  mariners. 


EUSEBIUS. 

EUSEBITTS,  of  Myndus  in  Caria,  though  one  of  the  disciples 
of  uEdesius,  appears  from  a  conference  with  which  he  had 
*  The  sacred  bull  of  the  Egyptians. 


190  FAVOKINUS. 

with  Julian,  to  have  considered  all  pretensions  to  intercourse 
with  demons,  or  inferior  divinities,  as  illusions  of  the  fancy, 
or  tricks  of  imposture,  and  to  have  discouraged  them  as  un- 
worthy of  the  purity  and  sublimity  of  true  philosophy.  His 
design  seems  to  have  been  to  restore  the  contemplation  of  In- 
telligibles,  or  Ideas,  as  the  only  real  and  immutable  natures, 
according  to  the  doctrine  of  Porphyry,  and  of  Plato  himself ; 
but  the  fanatical  doctrine  of  an  intercourse  between  demons 
and  men,  and  the  arts  of  theurgy  founded  upon  this  doctrine, 
were  now  too  generally  established,  and  found  too  useful,  to 
be  dismissed.  Eusebius  of  Myndus  was,  therefore,  less  accept- 
able to  the  emperor  Julian  than  another  disciple  of  ^Edesius, 
Maximus  of  Ephesus. 


FAVORINUS. 

FAYOKESTUS,  a  native  of  Aries,  lived  in  the  reigns  of  Trajan 
and  Adrian.  The  latter  esteemed  him  highly  for  his  learning 
and  eloquence,  and  frequently  disputed  with  him,  after  his 
usual  manner,  upon  subjects  of  literature  and  philosophy.  To 
many  other  learned  men  who  were  inclined  to  do  justice  to 
their  own  talents,  this  unequal  contest  proved  injurious,  and 
to  some  even  fatal ;  but  to  Favorinus,  who  perceived  that  it 
was  the  emperor's  foible  not  to  endure  a  defeat  in  disputation, 
upon  every  occasion  of  this  nature  prudently  ceded  to  the 
purple  the  triumph  of  conquest.  One  of  his  friends  reproach- 
ing him  for  having  so  tamely  given  up  the  point  in  a  debate 
with  the  emperor,  concerning  the  authority  of  a  certain  word, 
(for  the  emperor  was  a  great  philologist,)  Favorinus  replied, 
u  Would  you  have  me  contest  a  point  with  the  master  of  fifty 
legions  ?" 


GERBERT. HEGESIAS.  191 


GERBERT. 

ONE  of  the  most  celebrated  among  the  learned  was  GEKBERT, 
a  native  of  Orleans,  archbishop  of  Rheims,  and  afterwards 
Pope  Sylvester  II.  He  merits  a  distinguished  place  in  the  list 
of  natural  philosophers,  on  account  of  the  skill  which  he  ac- 
quired in  mathematics,  mechanics,  hydraulics,  and  astronomy. 
Dithmar,  writing  concerning  Gerbert,  says :  "  He  was  well 
skilled  in  astronomical  observations,  and  far  excelled  his  con- 
temporaries in  various  kinds  of  knowledge.  After  his  banish- 
ment from  France,  he  fled  to  the  emperor  Otho,  and  during 
his  stay  with  him  at  Madgeburg,  he  made  a  clock,  which  he 
corrected  by  observing  through  a  tube  a  certain  star  by  which 
sailors  are  guided  in  navigation."  The  knowledge  of  nature 
which  Gerbert  possessed  ^  so  far  surpassed  that  of  his  contem- 
poraries, that  they  thought  him  possessed  of  magical  power ; 
and  Benno,  a  cardinal  who  owed  him  a  grudge  for  his  oppo- 
sition to  the  see  of  Rome,  invented  and  circulated  a  tale  of 
his  holding  converse  with  the  devil.  His  Epistles,  of  which 
one  hundred  and  sixty-one  are  still  extant,  contain  many 
curious  particulars  respecting  natural  philosophy.  Sylvester 
II.  died  in  the  year  1003. 


HEGESIAS. 

HEGESIAS  was  a  disciple  of  the  Cyrenaic  sect,  founded  by 
Aristippus  of  Oyrene.  His  temper  was  too  gloomy  to  find  en- 
joyment upon  his  masters  plan,  and  his  principles  furnished 
him  with  no  other  sources  of  happiness.  He  was  so  thorough- 
ly dissatisfied  with  life,  that  he  thought  it  the  only  concern  of 
man  to  avoid  misery,  and  wrote  a  book  to  prove  that  death, 
as  the  cure  of  all  evil,  is  the  greatest  good.  Hence  he  ob- 
tained the  appellation  of  peisithanatos,  "  Advocate  for  death." 


192  HERACLIDES. 

He  was  called  "  Death's  Orator,''  because  of  a  book  he  wrote 
upon  a  certain  person  who  had  nearly  famished  himself  to 
death,  but  was  restored  by  his  friends.  In  this  book  he  de- 
scribed the  evils  of  life  with  so  much  power,  as  to  beget  in 
many  persons  a  desire  to  die  voluntarily,  many  of  whom  com- 
mitted suicide.  On  which  account  he  was  prohibited  by  King 
Ptolemy  from  discoursing  upon  the  subject  in  the  schools. 


HERACLIDES. 

HEKACLIDES  was  the.^on  of  Euthyphron,  and  was  born  at 
Heraclea,  in  Pontus.  He  was  also  a  wealthy  man.  After  he 
came  to  Athens,  he  was  at  first  a  disciple  of  Speusippus,  but 
he  also  attended  the  schools  of  the  Pythagorean  philosophers, 
and  he  adopted  the  principles  of  Plato.  Last  of  all,  he"  be- 
came a  pupil  of  Aristotle.  He  used  to  wear  delicate  garments, 
and  was  a  man  of  great  size,  so  that  he  was  nicknamed  by  the 
Athenians,  Pompicus,  instead  of  Ponticus.  But  he  was  of 
quiet  manners  and  noble  aspect. 

He  appears  to  have  delivered  his  country  when  it  was  under 
the  yoke  of  tyrants,  by  slaying  the  monarch,  as  Demetrius 
of  Magnesia  tells  us,  in .  his  treatise  on  People  of  the  Same 
Name. 

And  he  gives  the  following  account  of  him:  That  he 
brought  up  a  young  serpent,  and  kept  it  till  it  grew  large ; 
and  that  when  he  was  at  the  point  of  death,  he  desired  one 
of  his  faithful  friends  to  hide  his  body,  and  to  place  the  ser- 
pent in  his  bed,  that  he  might  appear  to  have  migrated  to  the 
Gods.  And  all  this  was  done ;  and  while  the  citizens  were 
all  attending  his  funeral,  and  extolling  his  character,  the 
serpent,  hearing  the  noise,  crept  out  of  his  clothes  and  threw 
the  multitude  into  confusion.  And  afterwards  everything  was 
revealed,  and  Heraclides  was  seen,  not  as  he  hoped  to  have 


HERACLIDES.  193 

been,  but  as  he  really  was.     And  we  have  written  an  epigram 
on  him,  which  runs  thus : — 

You  wish'd,  O  Heraclides,  when  you  died, 

To  leave  a  strange  belief  among  mankind, 

That  you,  when  dead,  a  serpent  had  become. 

But  all  your  calculations  were  deceived, 

For  this  your  serpent  was  indeed  a  beast, 

And  you  were  thus  discovered  and  pronounced  another. 

But  Herniippus  says,  that  once,  when  a  famine  oppressed 
the  land,  the  people  of  Heraclea  consulted  the  Pythian  oracle 
for  the  way  to  get  rid  of  it ;  and  that  Heraclides  corrupted 
the  ambassadors  who  were  sent  to  consult  the  oracle,  and  also 
the  priestess,  with  bribes ;  and  that  she  answered  that  they 
would  obtain  a  deliverance  from  their  distresses,  if  Heraclides, 
•the  son  of  Euthyphron,  was  presented  by  them  with  a  golden 
crown,  and  if  when  he  was  dead  they  paid  him  honors  as  a 
hero.  Accordingly,  this  answer  was  brought  back  from  the 
oracle  to  Heraclea,  but  they  who  brought  it  got  no  advantage 
from  it ;  for  as  soon  as  Ileraclides  had  been  crowned  in  the 
theatre,  he  was  seized  with  apoplexy,  and  the  ambassadors 
who  had  been  sent  to  consult  the  oracle  wrere  stoned,  and  so 
put  to  death  ;  and  at  the  very  same  moment  the  Pythian 
priestess  was  going  down  to  the  inner  shrine,  and  while  stand- 
ing there,  was  bitten  by  a  serpent,  and  died  immediately. 
This  then  is  the  account  given  of  his  death. 

And  Aristoxenus,  the  musician,  says,  that  he  composed 
tragedies,  and  inscribed  them  with  the  name  of  Thespis.  And 
Chameleon  says,  that  he  stole  essays  from  him  on  the  subject 
of  Homer  and  Hesiod,  and  published  them  as  his  own.  And 
Aretodorus,  the  Epicurean,  reproaches  him,  and  contradicts 
all  the  arguments  which  he  advanced  in  his  treatise  on  Justice. 
Moreover,  Dionysius,  called  the  Deserter,  or,  as  some  say, 
Speiitharus,  wrote  a  tragedy  called  Parthenopseus,  and  forged 
the  name  of  Sophocles  to  it.  And  Heraclides  was  so  much 
deceived,  that  he  took  some  passages  out  of  one  of  his  works, 

17 


194  HERACLITUS. 

and  cited  them  as  the  words  of  Sophocles.  And  Dionysius, 
when  he  perceived  it,  gave  him  notice  of  the  real  truth ;  and 
as  he  would  not  believe  it,  and  denied  it,  he  sent  him  word 
to  examine  the  first  letters  of  the  first  verses  of  the  book,  and 
they  formed  the  name  of  Panculus,  who  was  a  friend  of  Dio- 
nysius. And  as  Heraclides  still  refused  to  believe  it,  and 
said  that  it  was  possible  that  such  a  thing  might  happen  by 
chance,  Dionysius  sent  him  back  word  once  more,  "  You  will 
find  this  passage  too : — 

4  An  aged  monkey  is  not  easily  caught ; 
He 's  caught  indeed,  but  only  after  a  time.' " 

And  he  added,  "  Heraclides  knows  nothing  of  letters,  and  has 
no  shame." 

There  were  fourteen  persons  of  the  name  of  Heraclides. 


HERACLITUS. 

HEKACLITFS  was  the  son  of  Blyson,  or,  as  some  say,  of  He- 
raceon,  and  a  citizen  of  Ephesus.  He  flourished  about  the 
sixty-ninth  Olympiad. 

He  was  above  all  men  of  a  lofty  and  arrogant  spirit,  as  is 
plain  from  his  writings,  in  which  he  says,  "  Abundant  learn- 
ing doe13  not  form  the  mind;  for  if  it  did,  it  would  have  in- 
structed Hesiod,  and  Pythagoras,  and  likewise  Xenophanes, 
and  HecataBus.  For  the  only  piece  of  real  wisdom  is  to  know 
that  idea,  which  by  itself  will  govern  everything  on  every  oc- 
casion." He  used  to  say,  too,  that  Homer  deserved  to  be  ex- 
pelled from  the  games  and  beaten,  and  Archilochus  likewise. 
He  used  also  to  say,  "  It  is  more  necessary  to  extinguish  inso- 
lence, than  to  put  out  a  fire."  Another  of  his  sayings  was, 
"  The  people  ought  to  fight  for  the  law,  as  for  their  city."  He 
also  attacks  the  Ephesians  for  having  banished  his  companion 
Heriuodorus,  when  he  says,  "The  Ephesians  deserve  to  have 


HERACLITUS.  195 

all  their  youth  put  to  death,  and  all  those  who  are  younger  still 
banished  from  their  city,  inasmuch  as  they  have  banished  Her- 
modorus,  the  best  man  among  them,  saying,  '  Let  no  one  of  us 
be  pre-eminently  good ;  and  if  there  be  any  such  person,  let 
him  go  to  another  city  and  another  people.' ' 

And  when  he  was  requested  to  make  laws  for  them,  he  re- 
fused, because  the  city  was  already  immersed  in  a  thoroughly 
bad  constitution.  And  having  retired  to  the  temple  of  Diana 
with  his  children,  he  began  to  play  at  dice  ;  and  when  all  the 
Ephesians  flocked  round  him,  he  said,  "You  wretches,  what 
are  you  wondering  at?  is  it  not  better  to  do  this,  than  to 
meddle  with  public  affairs  in  your  company  ?" 

And  at  last,  becoming  a  complete  misanthrope,  he  used  to 
live,  spending  his  time  in  walking  about  the  mountains  ;  feed- 
ing on  grasses  and  plants,  and  in  consequence  of  these  habits, 
he  was  attacked  by  the  dropsy,  and  so  then  he  returned  to  the 
city,  and  asked  the  physicians,  in  a  riddle,  whether  they  were 
able  to  produce  a  drought  after  wet  weather.  And  as  they 
did  not  understand  him,  he  shut  himself  up  in  a  stable  for 
oxen,  and  covered  himself  with  cow-dung,  hoping  to  cause  the 
wet  to  evaporate  from  him,  by  the  warmth  that  this  produced. 
And  as  he  did  himself  no  good  in  this  way,  he  died,  having 
lived  seventy  years;  and  we  have  written  an  epigram  upon 
him  which  runs  thus : — 

1  've  often  wondered  much  at  Heraclitus, 
That  he  should  choose  to  live  so  miserably, 
And  die  by  such  a  miserable  fate. 
For  fell  disease  did  master  all  his  body, 
With  water  quenching  all  the  light  of  his  eyes, 
And  bringing  darkness  o'er  his  mind  and  body. 

But  Hermippus  states  that  what  he  asked  the  physicians 
was  this,  whether  any  one  could  draw  off  the  water  by  de- 
pressing his  intestines?  and  when  they  answered  that  they 
could  not,  ho  placed  himself  in  the  sun,  and  ordered  his  ser- 
vants to  plaster  him  over  with  cow-dung;  and  being  stretched 


196  HERACLITUS. 

out  in  that  way,  on  the  second  day  he  died,  and  was  buried  in 
the  market-place.  But  ISTeanthes,  of  Cyzicus  says,  that  as  he 
could  not  tear  off  the  cow-dung,  he  remained  there,  and  on  ac- 
count of  the  alteration  in  his  appearance,  he  was  not  discover- 
ed, and  so  was  devoured  by  the  dogs. 

And  he  was  a  wonderful  person,  from  his  boyhood,  since, 
while  he  was  young,  he  used  to  say  that  he  knew  nothing ;  but 
when  he  had  grown  up,  he  then  used  to  affirm  that  he  knew 
everything.  And  he  was  no  one's  pupil,  but  he  used  to  say, 
that  he  himself  had  investigated  everything,  and  had  learned 
everything  of  himself.  But  Sotion  relates,  that  some  people 
affirmed  that  he  had  been  a  pupil  of  Xenophanes.  And  that 
Ariston  stated  in  his  account  of  Heraclitus,  that  he  was  cured 
of  the  dropsy,  and  died  of  some  other  disease.  And  Hippo- 
botus  gives  the  same  account. 

There  is  a  book  of  his  extant,  which  is  about  nature  gener- 
ally, and  it  is  divided  into  three  discourses ;  one  on  the  Uni- 
verse ;  one  on  Politics ;  and  one  on  Theology.  And  he  de- 
posited this  book  in  the  temple  of  Diana,  as  some  authors 
report,  having  written  it  intentionally  in  an  obscure  style,  in 
order  that  only  those  who  were  able  men  might  comprehend 
it,  and  that  it  might  not  be  exposed  to  ridicule  at  the  hands  of 
the  common  people.  Timon  attacks  this  man  also,  saying :  — 

Among  them  came  that  cuckoo  Heraclitus 
The  enigmatical  obscure  reviler 
Of  all  the  common  people. 

Theophrastus  asserts,  that  it  was  out  of  melancholy  that  he 
left  some  of  his  works  half  finished,  and  wrote  several  in 
completely  different  styles ;  and  Antisthenes,  in  his  Success- 
ions, adduces  as  a  proof  of  his  lofty  spirit,  the  fact,  that  he 
yielded  to  his  brother  the  title  and  privileges  of  royalty.* 
And  his  book  had  so  high  a  reputation,  that  a  sect  arose  in 

*  According  to  Strabo,  the  descendants  of  Androclus,  the  founder  of  Ephe- 
sus  (of  which  family  Heraclitus  came),  bore  the  title  of  king,  and  had  certain 
prerogatives  and  privileges  attached  to  the  title. 


HERACLITUS.  197 

consequence  of  it,  who  were  called  after  his  own  name,  Heia- 
clitean. 

The  following  may  be  set  down  in  a  general  manner  as  his 
main  principles :  that  everything  is  created  from  fire,  £nd  is 
dissolved  into  fire  ;  that  everything  happens  according  to  des- 
tiny, and  that  all  existing  things  are  harmonized,  and  made  to 
agree  together  by  opposite  tendencies  ;  and  that  all  things  are 
full  of  souls  and  deemones.  He  also  discussed  all  the  passions 
which  exist  in  the  world,  and  used  also  to  contend  that  the 
sun  was  of  that  precise  magnitude  of  which  he  appears  to  be. 
One  of  his  sayings  too  was,  that  no  one,  by  whatever  road  he 
might  travel,  could  ever  possibly  find  out  the  boundaries  of 
the  soul,  so  deeply  hidden  are  the  principles  which  regulate  it. 
He  used  also  to  call  opinion  the  sacred  disease ;  and  to  say 
that  eye-sight  was  often  deceived.  Sometimes,  in  his  writ- 
ings, he  expressed  himself  with  great  brilliancy  and  clearness , 
so  that  even  the  most  stupid  man  may  easily  understand  him. 
and  receive  an  elevation  of  soul  from  him.  And  his  concise- 
ness, and  the  dignity  of  his  style,  are  incomparable. 

They  say  that  when  he  was  asked  why  he  preserved 
silence,  he  said,  "  That  you  may  talk." 

Darius  was  very  desirous  to  enjoy  his  conversation ;  and 
wrote  thus  to  him : — 

KING   DAEItTS,  THE    SON    OF   HTSTA8PES,    ADDEESSES    HEEAOLITUS, 
OF  EPHESTJ9,  THE  WISE  MAN,  GEEETING-  HIM. 

"You  have  written  a  book  on  Natural  Philosophy,  difficult 
to  understand  and  difficult  to  explain.  Accordingly,  if  in 
some  parts  it  is  explained  literally,  it  seems  to  disclose  a  very 
important  theory  concerning  the  universal  world,  and  all  that 
is  contained  in  it,  as  they  are  placed  in  a  state  of  most  divine 
motion.  But  commonly,  the  mind  is  kept  in  suspense,  so 
that  those  who  have  studied  your  work  the  most,  are  not  able 
precisely  to  disentangle  the  exact  meaning  of  your  expressions. 
Therefore,  King  Darius,  the  son  of  Hystaspes,  wishes  to  enjoy 

17* 


198  HERACLITUS. 

the  benefit  of  hearing  you  discourse,  and  of  receiving  some 
Grecian  instruction.  Come,  therefore,  quickly  to  my  sight, 
and  to  my  royal  palace ;  for  the  Greeks,  in  general,  do  not 
accord  to  wise  men  the  distinction  which  they  deserve,  and 
disregard  the  admirable  expositions  delivered  by  them,  which 
are,  however,  worthy  of  being  seriously  listened  to  and 
studied  ;  but  with  me  you  shall  have  every  kind  of  distinction 
and  honor,  and  you  shall  enjoy  every  day  honorable  and 
worthy  conversation,  and  your  pupil's  life  shall  become  vir- 
tuous, in  accordance  with  your  precepts." 

HEEAOLITUS,  OF   EPHESUS,    TO    KING   DAKIUS,    THE   SON    OF 
HYSTASPES,  GEEETING. 

"  All  the  men  that  exist  in  the  world,  are  far  removed  from 
truth  and  just  dealings ;  but  they  are  full  of  evil  foolishness, 
which  leads  them  to  insatiable  covetousness  and  vain-glorious 
ambition.  I,  however,  forgetting  all  their  worthlessness,  and 
shunning  satiety,  and  who  wish  to  avoid  all  envy  on  the  part 
of  my  countrymen,  and  all  appearance  of  arrogance,  will 
never  come  to  Persia,  since  I  am  quite  contented  with  a  little, 
and  live  as  best  suits  my  own  inclination." 

This  was  the  way  in  which  the  man  behaved  even  to  the 
king.  And  Demetrius,  in  his  treatise  on  People  of  the  Same 
Name,  says  that  he  also  despised  the  Athenians,  among  whom 
he  had  a  very  high  reputation.  And  that  though  he  was  him- 
self despised  by  the  Ephesians,  he  nevertheless  preferred  his 
own  home.  Demetrius  Phaleruus  also  mentions  him  in  hiu 
Defence  of  Socrates : — 

I  who  lie  here  am  Heraclitus,  spare  me 
Ye  rude  unlettered  men :  'Twas  not  for  you 
That  I  did  labor,  but  for  wiser  people. 
One  man  may  be  to  me  a  countless  host, 
And  an  unnumbered  multitude  be  no  one  ; 
And  this  I  still  say  in  the  shades  below. 

And  there  is  another  expressed  thus  : — 


HIP  PAR  GUI  A.  199 

Be  not  too  hasty,  skimming  o'er  the  book 
Of  Heraclitus  ;  'tis  a  difficult  road, 
For  mist  is  there,  and  darkness  hard  to  pierce. 
But  if  you  have  a  guide  who  knows  his  system, 
Then  everything  is  clearer  than  the  sun. 


HIPPAROHIA. 

HIPPAEOHIA  and  her  brother  Metrocles,  were  natives  of 
Meronea.  She  fell  in  love  with  both  the  doctrines  and  the 
manners  of  Crates,  and  conld  not  be  diverted  from  her  regard 
for  him.  by  either  the  wealth  or  the  high  birth  or  personal 
beauty  of  any  of  her  suitors ;  but  Crates  was  everything  to 
her ;  and  she  threatened  her  parents  to  make  away  with  her- 
self, if  she  were  not  given  in  marriage  to  him.  Crates,  ac- 
cordingly, being  entreated  by  her  parents  to  dissuade  her 
from  this  resolution,  did  all  he  could  ;  and  at  last,  as  he  could 
not  persuade  her,  he  rose  up,  and  placing  all  his  furniture  be- 
fore her,  he  said,  "  This  is  the  bridegroom  whom  you  are 
choosing,  and  this  is  the  whole  of  his  property  ;  consider  these 
facts,  for  it  will  not  be  possible  for  you  to  become  his  partner, 
if  you  do  not  also  apply  yourself  to  the  same  studies,  and 
conform  to  the  same  habits  that  he  does."  But  the  girl  chose 
him  ;  and  assuming  the  same  dress  that  he  wore,  went  about 
with  him  as  her  husband,  and  appeared  with  him  in  public 
everywhere,  and  went  to  all  entertainments  in  his  company. 

And  once,  when  she  went  to  sup  with  Lysimachus,  she  at- 
tacked Theodoras,  who  was  surnamed  the  Atheist,  proposing 
to  him  the  following  sophism  :  u  What  Theodoras  could  not 
be  called  wrong  for  doing,  that  same  thing  Hipparchia  ought 
not  to  be  called  wrong  for  doing.  But  Theodoras  does  no 
wrong  when  he  beats  himself;  therefore  Hipparchia  does  no 
wrong  when  she  beats  Theodoras."  He  made  no  reply  to 
what  she  said,  but  only  pulled  her  clothes  about ;  but  Hip- 


200  HIEROCLES  . H I L  L  E  L  . 

parchia  was  neither  offended  nor  ashamed,  as  many  a  woman 
would  have  been  ;  but  when  he  said  to  her, 

"  Who  is  the  woman  who  has  left  the  shuttle 
So  near  the  warp  ?"* 

"  I,  Theodoras,  am  that  person,"  she  replied ;  "but  do  I  appear 
to  you  to  have  come  to  a  wrong  decision,  if  I  devote  that  time 
to  philosophy,  which  I  otherwise  should  have  spent  at  the 
loom  ?"  And  these  and  many  other  sayings  are  reported  of 
this  female  philosopher. 


HIEEOCLES. 

TOWAEDS  the  close  of  the  fifth  century  flourished  HIEKOCLES, 
who  was  born  and  taught  in  Alexandria.  He  suffered  severely 
for  his  adherence  to  the  Pagan  superstitions.  At  Constanti- 
nople he  was  cruelly  scourged ;  and,  in  the  midst  of  his  tor- 
ture, receiving  some  of  the  blood  into  his  own  hand,  he  threw 
it  upon  the  face  of  his  judge,  repeating  the  following  verse 
from  Homer : — 

Cyclops,  since  human  flesh  has  been  thy  feast, 
Now  drain  this  goblet,  potent  to  digest. 


HILLEL. 

HILLEL,  surnamed  Hassaken,  was  born  at  Babylon,  of  poor 
parents,  but  of  the  royal  stock  of  David,  in  the  year  one  hun- 
dred and  twelve  before  Christ.  After  residing  forty  years  in 
Babylon,  where  he  married  and  had  a  son,  he  removed  with 
his  family  to  Jerusalem,  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  law, 
Shemaiah  and  Abdalion  were  at  that  time  eminent  doctors 

*  This  line  is  from  the  Bacchfe  of  Euripides. 


H  Y  P  A  T  I A  .  201 

in  Jerusalem.  Hillel,  unable  on  account  of  his  poverty  to  gain 
a  regular  admission  to  their  lectures,  spent  a  considerable  part 
of  the  profits  of  his  daily  labor  in  bribing  the  attendants  to 
allow  him  a  place  at  the  door  of  the  public  hall,  where  he 
might  gather  up  the  doctrine  of  these  eminent  masters  by 
stealth  ;  and  when  this  expedient  failed  him,  he  found  means 
to  place  himself  at  the  top  of  the  building,  near  one  of  the 
windows.  By  unwearied  perseverance,  Hillel  acquired  a  pro- 
found knowledge  of  the  most  difficult  points  of  the  law,  in 
consequence  of  which  his  reputation  rose  to  such  a  height, 
that  he  became  the  master  of  the  chief  school  in  Jerusalem. 
In  this  station  he  was  universally  regarded  as  an  oracle  of 
wisdom  scarcely  inferior  to  Solomon,  and  had  many  thousand 
followers.  He  had  such  command  of  his  temper,  that  no  one 
ever  saw  him  angry.  The  name  of  Hillel  is  in  the  highest 
esteem  among  the  Jews,  for  the  pains  which  he  took  to  per- 
petuate the  knowledge  of  the  traditionary  law.  He  arranged 
its  precepts  under  six  general  classes,  and  thus  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  that  digest  of  the  Jewish  law  which  is  called  the 
Talmud.  Hillel  is  said  to  have  lived  to  the  great  age  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  years. 


HYPATIA. 

HYPATIA  was  the  daughter  of  Theon,  a  celebrated  mathe- 
matician of  Alexandria.  Her  extensive  learning,  elegant  man- 
ners, and  tragical  end,  have  rendered  her  name  immortal. 
She  possessed  an  acute  and  penetrating  judgment,  and  great 
sublimity  and  fertility  of  genius,  and  her  talents  were  culti- 
vated with  assiduity  by  her  father  and  other  preceptors.  Af- 
ter she  had  made  herself  mistress  of  polite  learning,  and  of 
the  sciences  of  geometry  and  astronomy,  as  far  as  they  were 
then  understood,  she  entered  upon  the  study  of  philosophy. 


202  HYP  All  A. 

She  prosecuted  this  study  with  such  uncommon  success,  that 
she  was  importuned  to  become  a  public  preceptress  in  the 
school  where  Plotinus  and  his  successors  had  taught ;  and  her 
love  of  science  enabled  her  so  far  to  subdue  the  natural  diffi- 
dence of  the  sex,  that  she  yielded  to  the  public  voice,  and  ex- 
changed her  female  decorations  for  the  philosopher's  cloak. 
In  the  schools,  and  in  other  places  of  public  resort,  she  dis- 
coursed upon  philosophical  topics,  explaining,  and  endeavoring 
to  reconcile,  the  systems  of  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  other  masters. 
A  ready  elocution,  and  graceful  address,  united  with  rich  eru- 
dition and  sound  judgment,  procured  her  numerous  followers 
and  admirers ;  among  whom  was  Synesius.  But  that  which 
reflects  the  highest  honor  upon  her  memory  is,  that,  though 
she  excelled  most  of  the  philosophers  of  her  age  in  mathemati- 
cal and  philosophical  science,  she  discovered  no  pride  of  learn- 
ing ;  and  though  she  was  in  person  exceedingly  beautiful,  she 
never  yielded  to  the  impulse  of  female  vanity,  or  gave  occa- 
sion to  the  slightest  suspicion  against  her  chastity. 

The  extraordinary  combination  of  accomplishments  and 
virtues  which  adorned  the  character  of  Hypatia,  rendered  her 
house  the  general  resort  of  persons  of  learning  and  distinction. 
But  it  was  impossible  that  so  much  merit  should  not  excite 
envy.  The  qualifications  and  attainments  to  which  she  was 
indebted  for  her  celebrity,  proved  in  the  issue  the  occasion  of 
her  destruction.  It  happened  that  at  this  time  the  patriarchal 
chair  of  Alexandria  was  occupied  by  Cyril,  a  bishop  of  great 
authority,  but  of  great  haughtiness  and  violence  of  temper.  In 
the  vehemence  of  his  bigoted  zeal,  he  had  treated  the  Jews  with 
severity,  and  at  last  banished  them  out  of  Alexandria.  Orestes, 
the  prefect  of  the  city,  a  man  of  a  liberal  spirit,  highly  resented 
this  expulsion  as  an  unpardonable  stretch  of  ecclesiastical  power, 
and  a  cruel  act  of  oppression  and  injustice  against  a  people 
T\  ho  had  inhabited  Alexandria  from  the  time  of  its  founder. 
IIo  reported  the  affair  to  the  emperor.  The  bishop,  on  his 
part,  complained  to  the  prince  of  the  seditious  temper  of  the 


HYP  AT  I  A.  203 

Jews,  and  attempted  to  justify  his  proceedings.  The  emperor 
declined  to  interpose  his  authority  ;  and  the  affair  rapidly  ad- 
vanced to  the  utmost  extremity.  A  body  of  about  five  hun- 
dred monks,  who  espoused  the  cause  of  Cyril,  came  into  the 
city  with  a  determination  to  support  him  by  force.  Meeting 
the  prefect,  as  he  was  passing  through  the  street  in  his  car- 
riage, they  stopped  him,  and  loaded  him  with  reproaches ; 
and  one  of  them  threw  a  stone  at  his  head,  and  wounded  him. 
The  populace,  who  were  by  this  time  assembled  on  the  part 
of  the  prefect,  routed  the  monks,  and  seized  one  of  their  lead- 
ers. Orestes  ordered  him  to  be  put  to  death.  Cyril  buried 
his  body  in  the  church,  and  gave  instructions  that  his  name 
should  be  registered  among  the  sacred  martyrs.  Hypatia,  who 
had  always  been  highly  respected  by  the  prefect,  and  who  had, 
at  this  time,  frequent  conferences  with  him,  was  supposed  by 
the  partisans  of  the  bishop  to  have  been  deeply  engaged  in 
the  interest  of  Orestes.  Their  resentment  at  length  rose  to 
such  a  height,  that  they  formed  a  design  against  her  life.  As 
she  was  one  day  returning  home  from  the  schools,  the  mob 
seized  her,  forced  her  from  her  chair,  and  carried  her  to  the 
Cresareau  church  ;  where  stripping  off  her  garments,  they  put 
her  to  death  with  extreme  barbarity;  and  having  torn  her 
body  limb  from  limb,  committed  it  to  the  flames.  Cyril  him- 
self has,  by  some  writers,  been  suspected  of  secretly  promot- 
ing this  horrid  act  of  violence.  And  if  the  haughtiness  and 
severity  of  his  temper,  his  persecution  of  the  Jews,  his  op- 
pressive and  iniquitious  treatment  of  the  Novatian  sect  of 
Christians  and  their  bishop,  the  vehemence  of  his  present  in- 
dignation against  Orestes  and  his  party,  and,  above  all,  the- 
protection  which  he  is  said  to  have  afforded  to  the  immediate 
perpetrators  of  the  murder  of  Hypatia,  be  duly  considered,  it 
will  perhaps  appear  that  this  suspicion  is  not  wholly  without 
foundation.  Hypatia  was  murdered  under  the  reign  of  the 
emperor  Theodosius  II.  in  the  year  four  hundred  and  fifteen. 
Hence  it  is  certain  that  she  could  not  have  been,  as  Suidas, 


204  JULIAN. 

with  his  usual  precipitation,  relates,  the  wife  of  Isidorus :  it 
is  probable  that  through  her  whole  life  she  remained  in  a  state 
of  celibacy. 


JULIAN. 

THE  emperor  JULIAN  is  generally  acknowledged  to  have 
been  not  only  a  patron  of  philosophers,  but  himself  a  philoso- 
pher. Referring  to  the  civil  historians  for  the  particulars  of 
his  political  conduct,  we  shall  mention  such  incidents  as  more 
immediately  respect  his  philosophical  character. 

Julian,  in  the  early  part  of  his  life,  was  carefully  instructed 
in  literature  and  science  by  Christian  preceptors.  "Whilst  he 
was  pursuing  his  studies  at  Nicoinedia,  his  uncle  Constantius 
strictly  charged  him  not  to  attend  upon  the  lectures  of  the 
celebrated  Pagan  Sophist,  Libanius.  This  prohibition  had  no 
other  effect  than  to  awaken  the  young  man's  curiosity,  and 
kindle  an  earnest  desire  of  visiting  the  Pagan  schools.  Not- 
withstanding every  precaution,  he  conversed  freely  with  phi- 
losophers, and  grew  fond  of  the  fanciful  system  taught  by  the 
Alexandrian  Platonists.  His  natural  disposition,  which  was 
tinctured  with  enthusiasm,  favored  this  attachment ;  and  it 
was  confirmed  by  the  intimacy  which,  during  his  residence  at 
Nicomedia,  he  formed  with  Maximus,  of  Ephesus.  Under  his 
instructions,  and  those  of  Chrysanthius  and  others,  he  became 
a  great  proficient  in  the  abstruse  speculations,  and  in  the 
theurgic  arts  of  this  school.  With  the  permission  of  his  uncle, 
he  finished  his  studies  at  Athens,  where  he  acquired  great 
reputation  in  learning  and  philosophy,  and  was  initiated  in  the 
Eleusinian  mysteries. 

When  Julian  was  called  by  Constantius  to  exchange  the 
school  of  philosophy  for  the  fi  sld  of  war,  he  made  great  use  of 
the  magic  arts,  which  he  had  learned  from  Maximus,  in  exe- 
cuting his  political  purposes.  Whilst  he  was  at  Vienna,  he 


JULIAN.  205 

reported  that,  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  he  had  been  visited 
by  a  celestial  form,  which  had  in  heroic  verse  promised  him 
the  possession  of  the  imperial  dignity. 

As  soon  as  Julian  reached  the  summit  of  his  wishes,  he 
employed  his  power  in  restoring  the  heathen  superstition. 
He  at  this  time,  however,  used  no  violent  measures  to  compel 
the  Christians  to  forsake  their  religion,  rightly  judging  that 
"false  opinions  can  never  be  corrected  by  fire  and  sword." 
His  principal  favorites  were  the  Pagan  philosophers  of  the 
school  of  ^Edesius  ;  but  learned  men  of  every  class  were  en- 
couraged in  his  court.  When  he  afterwards  shut  up  the 
Christian  schools,  it  was  in  the  hope  of  suppressing  the  Chris- 
tian religion  by  involving  its  professors  in  ignorance  and  bar- 
barism. 

This  prince  not  only  encouraged  letters  by  his  patronage,  but 
was  himself  a  learned  writer.  It  is  easy  to  perceive,  from  a 
slight  inspection  of  his  works,  that  he  strictly  adhered  to  the 
Alexandrian,  or  Eclectic  school.  He  professes  himself  a  warm 
admirer  of  Pythagoras  and  Plato,  and  recommends  a  union  of 
their  tenets  with  those  of  Aristotle.  The  later  Platonists  of 
his  own  period  he  loads  with  encomiums,  particularly  Jam- 
blicus,  whom  he  calls  the  Light  of  the  World,  and  the  Phy- 
sician of  the  Mind.  Amidst  the  numerous  traces  of  an 
enthusiastic  and  bigoted  attachment  to  Pagan  theology  and 
philosophy,  and  of  an  inveterate  enmity  to  Christianity,  which 
are  to  be  found  in  his  writings,  the  candid  reader  will  dis- 
cern many  marks  of  genius  and  erudition. 

Concerning  the  manners  .of  Julian,  Libanius  writes  that  no 
philosopher,  in  the  lowest  state  of  poverty,  was  ever  more 
temperate,  or  more  ready  to  practice  rigorous  abstinence  from 
food,  as  the  means  of  preparing  his  mind  for  conversing  with 
the  Gods.  Like  Plotinus,  Porphyry,  Jamblicus,  and  others 
of  this  fanatical  sect,  he  dealt  in  visions  and  ecstasies,  and 
pretended  to  a  supernatural  intercourse  with  divinities.  Suidas 

18 


206  L  A  C  Y  D  E  S  . 

relates,  probably  from  some  writings  of  the  credulous  Euna- 
pius,  now  lost,  an  oracular  prediction  concerning  his  death. 

His  philosophical  character  attended  him  in  his  military 
exploits,  and  accompanied  him  to  the  last.  After  he  had  re- 
ceived his  mortal  wound,  he  held  a  conference  with  the  phi- 
losophers Maximus  and  Priscus,  concerning  the  soul,  in  the 
midst  of  which  he  expired,  in  the  thirty-second  year  of  his 
age. 

On  the  whole,  although  the  emperor  Julian  must  not  be 
denied  the  place  which  has  long  been  allowed  him  among  phi- 
losophers, it  must  be  owned  that  his  philosophy  was  neither 
able  to  preserve  him  from  superstition  and  enthusiasm,  nor 
to  raise  his  mind  above  the  influence  of  the  narrowest  and 
most  pernicious  prejudices. 


LACYDES. 

LAOTDES,  the  son  of  Alexander,  was  a  native  of  Gyrene. 
He  was  the  founder  of  the  New  Academy,  having  succeeded 
Arcesilaus.  He  was  a  man  of  great  gravity  of  character  and 
deportment,  and  one  who  had  many  imitators.  He  was  in- 
dustrious from  his  very  childhood,  and  poor,  but  very  pleasing 
and  sociable  in  his  manners. 

They  say  he  had  a  pleasant  way  of  managing  his  house- 
keeping affairs.  For  when  he  had  taken  anything  out  of  his 
store-chest,  he  would  seal  it  up  again,  and  throw  in  his  seal 
through  the  hole,  so  that  it  should  be  impossible  for  anything 
of  what  he  had  laid  up  there,  to  be  stolen  from  him  or  car- 
ried off.  But  his  servants  learning  this  contrivance  of  his, 
broke  the  seal,  and  carried  off  as  much  as  they  pleased,  and 
then  they  put  the  ring  back  through  the  hole  in  the  same 
manner  as  before ;  and  though  they  did  this  repeatedly,  they 
were  never  detected.  Lacydes  now  used  to  hold  his  school  in 


LYCON.  207 

the  garden,  which  had  been  laid  out  by  Attains,  the  king,  and 
it  was  called  Lacydeum,  after  him. 

This  witty  saying  is  attributed  to  Lacydes :  They  say  that 
when  Attains  sent  for  him,  he  answered  that  u  Statues  ought 
to  be  seen  at  a  distance."  On  another  occasion,  as  it  is  re- 
ported, he  was  studying  geometry  very  late  in  life,  and  some 
said  to  him,  is  it  then  a  time  for  you  to  be  learning  now  ?  u  If 
it  is  not,"  he  replied,  "  when  will  it  be  ?" 

He  died  in  the  fourth  year  of  the  hundred  and  thirty-fourth 
Olympiad,  of  a  paralysis  brought  on  by  drinking.  Diogenes 
L.  jests  upon  him  in  the  following  manner : — 

'  Tis  an  odd  story  that  I  heard  of  you 
Lacydes,  that  you  went  with  hasty  steps, 
Spurred  on  by  Bacchus,  to  the  shades  below. 
Now  then,  if  this  be  true,  can  it  be  said 
That  Bacchus  e'er  trips  up  his  votaries'  feet? 
'Tis  a  mistake,  his  being  named  Lyseus.  * 


LYCON. 

LYOON,  was  native  of  the  Troas,  the  son  of  Astyanax,  a 
man  of  great  eloquence,  and  of  especial  ability  in  the  educa- 
tion of  youth.  For  he  used  to  say  that  it  was  fit  for  boys  to 
be  harnessed  with  modesty  and  rivalry,  as  much  as  for  horses 
to  be  equipped  with  a  spur  and  a  bridle.  And  his  eloquence 
and  energy  in  speaking  is  apparent,  from  this  instance.  For 
he  speaks  of  a  virgin  who  was  poor  in  the  following  manner : 
"A  damsel,  who,  for  want  of  a  dowry,  goes  beyond  the 
seasonable  age,  is  a  heavy  burden  to  her  father;"  on  which 
account  they  say  that  Antigonus  said  with  reference  to  him, 
that  the  sweetness  and  beauty  of  an  apple  could  not  be  trans- 
ferred to  anything  else,  but  that  one  might  see,  in  the  case  of 
this  man,  all  these  excellencies,  in  as  great  perfection  as  on  a 
*  From  luo  to  relax  or  weaken  the  limbs. 


208  L  Y  C  O  N . 

tree ;  and  he  said  this,  because  he  was  a  surpassingly  sweet 
speaker.  On  which  account,  some  people  prefixed  a  G  to 
his  name.*  But  as  a  writer,  he  was  very  unequal  to  his  rep- 
utation. And  he  used  to  jest  in  a  careless  way,  upon  those 
who  repented  that  they  had  not  learnt  when  they  had  the  op- 
portunity, and  who  now  wished  that  they  had  done  so,  saying, 
that  "they  were  accusing  themselves,  showing  by  a  prayer 
which  could  not  possibly  be  accomplished,  their  misplaced  re- 
pentance for  their  idleness."  He  used  also  to  say,  that  "  those 
who  deliberated  without  coming  to  a  right  conclusion,  erred  in 
their  calculations,  like  men  who  investigate  a  correct  nature 
by  an  incorrect  standard,  or  who  look  at  a  face  in  disturbed 
water,  or  a  distorted  mirror."  Another  of  his  sayings  was,  that 
"many  men  go  in  pursuit  of  the  crown  to  be  won  in  the 
forum,  but  few  or  none  seek  to  attain  the  one  to  be  gained  at 
the  Olympic  games." 

As  he  in  many  instances  gave  much  advice  to  the  Athen- 
ians, he  was  of  exceedingly  great  service  to  them. 

He  was  also  a  person  of  great  neatness  in  his  dress,  wearing 
garments  of  an  unsurpassable  delicacy,  as  we  are  told  by  Her- 
mippus.'  He  was  at  the  same  time  exceedingly  devoted  to  the 
exercises  of  the  Gymnasium,  and  a  man  who  was  always  in 
excellent  condition  as  to  his  body,  displaying  every  quality  of 
an  athlete  (though  Antigonus  of  Carystus,  pretends  that  he 
was  bruised  about  the  ears  and  dirty) ;  and  in  his  own  country 
he  is  said  to  have  wrestled  and  played  at  ball  at  the  Iliajan 
games. 

He  was  exceedingly  beloved  by  Euraenes  and  Attalus,  who 
made  him  great  presents ;  and  Antigonus  also  tried  to  seduce 
him  to  his  court,  but  was  disappointed.  He  was  so  great  an 
enemy  to  Hieronymus  the  Peripatetic,  that  he  was  the  only 
person  who  would  not  go  to  see  him  on  the  anniversary  festi- 
val which  he  used  to  celebrate,  and  which  we  have  mentioned 
in  our  life  of  Arcesilaus.  He  presided  over  his  school  forty- 

*  So  as  to  make  it  appear  connected  with  glukus,  sweet. 


LYCON.  20£> 

four  years,  as  Strato  had  left  it  to  him  in  his  will,  in  the  hun- 
dred and  twenty-seventh  Olympiad. 

He  was  also  a  pupil  of  Panthoides,  the  dialectician.  He  died 
when  he  was  seventy-four  years  of  age,  having  been  a  great 
sufferer  with  the  gout,  and  there  is  an  epigram  of  ours  upon 
him : — 

Nor  shall  wise  Lycon  be  forgotten,  who 
Died  of  the  gout,  and  much  I  wonder  at  it. 
For  he  who  ne'er  before  could  walk  alone, 
Went  the  long  road  to  hell  in  a  single  night. 

He  left  the  following  singular  will :  u  I  make  the  following 
disposition  of  my  property  ;  if  I  am  unable  to  withstand  this 
disease  : — Ail  the  property  in  my  house  I  leave  to  my  brothers 
Astyanax  and  Lycon  ;  and  I  think  that  they  ought  to  pay  all 
that  I  owe  at  Athens,  and  that  I  may  have  borrowed  from 
any  one,  and  also  all  the  expenses  that  may  be  incurred  for 
my  funeral,  and  for  other  customary  solemnities.  And  all 
that  I  have  in  the  city,  or  in  ^Egina,  I  give  to  Lycon,  because 
he  bears  the  same  name  that  I  do,  and  because  he  has  spent 
the  greater  part  of  his  life  with  me,  showing  me  the  greatest 
affection,  as  it  was  fitting  that  he  should  do,  since  he  was  in 
the  place  of  a  son  to  me.  And  I  leave  my  garden  walk  to 
those  of  my  friends  who  like  to  use  it ;  to  Bulon,  and  Callinus, 
and  Ariston,  and  Amplicon,  and  Lycon,  and  Python,  and 
Aristomachus,  and  Heracleus,  and  Lycomedes,  and  Lycon  my 
nephew.  And  I  desire  that  they  will  elect  as  president  him 
whom  they  think  most  likely  to  remain  attached  to  the  pur- 
suit of  philosophy,  and  most  capable  of  holding  the  school 
together.  And  I  entreat  the  rest  of  my  friends  to  acquiesce 
in  their  selection,  for  my  sake  and  that  of  the  place.  And  I 
desire  that  Bulon,  and  Callinus,  and  the  rest  of  my  friends, 
will  manage  my  funeral  and  the  burning  of  my  body,  so  that 
my  obsequies  may  not  be  either  mean  or  extravagant.  And 
the  property  which  I  have  in  ^Egina  shall  be  divided  by 
Lycon  after  my  decease  among  the  young  men  there,  for  the 

18* 


210  LYCON. 

purpose  of  anointing  themselves,  in  order  that  the  memory 
of  me  and  of  him  who  honored  me,  and  who  showed  his 
affection  by  useful  presents,  may  be  long  preserved.  And  let. 
him  erect  a  statue  of  me  ;  and  as  for  the  place  for  it,  I  desire 
that  Diophantus  and  Heroclides  the  son  of  Demetrius,  shall 
select  that,  and  take  care  that  it  be  suitable  for  the  proposed 
erection.  "With  the  property  that  I  have  in  the  city  let  Lycon 
pay  all  the  people  of  whom  I  have  borrowed  anything  since 
his  departure ;  and  let  Bulon  and  Callinus  join  him  in  this, 
and  also  in  discharging  all  the  expenses  incurred  for  my 
funeral,  and  for  all  other  customary  solemnities,  and  let  him 
deduct  the  amount  from  the  funds  which  I  have  left  in  my 
house,  and  bequeathed  to  them  both  in  common.  Let  him 
also  pay  the  physicians,  Pasithemis  and  Medias,  men  who,  for 
their  attention  to  me  and  for  their  skill,  are  very  deserving  of 
still  greater  honor.  And  I  give  to  the  son  of  Callinus  my  pair 
of  Thericlean  cups ;  and  to  his  wife  I  give  my  pair  of  Rhodian 
cups,  and  my  smooth  carpet,  and  my  double  carpet,  and  my 
curtains,  and  the  two  best  pillows  of  all  that  I  leave  behind 
me ;  so  that  as  far  as  the  compliment  goes,  I  may  be  seen  not 
to  have  forgotten  them.  And  with  respect  to  those  who  have 
been  my  servants,  I  make  the  following  disposition  : — To  De- 
metrius who  has  long  been  freed,  I  remit  the  price  of  his  free- 
dom, and  I  further  giv$  .five  mina3,  and  a  cloak,  and  a  tunic, 
that  as  he  has  a  great  deal  of  trouble  about  me,  he  may  pass 
the  rest  of  his  life  comfortably.  To  Criton,  the  Chalcedonian, 
I  also  remit  the  price  of  his  freedom,  and  I  further  give  him 
four  mines.  Micras  I  hereby  present  with  his  freedom  ;  and  I 
desire  Lycon  to  maintain  him,  and  instruct  him  for  six  years 
from  the  present  time.  I  also  give  his  freedom  to  Chares,  and 
desire  Lycon  to  maintain  him.  And  I  further  give  him  two 
minoa,  and  all  my  books  that  are  published  ;  but  those  which 
are  not  published,  I  give  to  Callinus,  that  he  may  publish  them 
with  due  care.  I  also  give  to  Syrus,  whom  I  have  already 
emancipated,  fov.r  mina3,  and  Menedora ;  and  if  he  owes  ire 


MAXIMUS.  211 

anything  I  acquit  him  of  the  debt.  And  I  give  to  Hilaras 
four  minge,  and  a  double  carpet,  and  two  pillows,  and  a 
curtain,  and  any  couch  which  he  chooses  to  select.  I  also 
hereby  emancipate  the  mother  of  Micras,  and  Noemon,  and 
Dion,  and  Theon,  and  Euphranor,  and  Hermeas  ;  and  I  desire 
that  Agathon  shall  have  his  freedom  when  he  has  served  two 
years  longer ;  and  that  Ophelion,  and  Poseideon,  my  litter- 
bearers,  shall  have  theirs  when  they  have  waited  four  years 
more.  I  also  give  to  Demetrius,  and  Criton,  and  Syrus,  a 
couch  apiece,  and  coverlets  from  those  which  I  leave  behind 
me,  according  to  the  selection  which  Lycon  is  hereby  author- 
ized to  make.  And  these  are  to  be  their  rewards  for  having 
performed  the  duties  to  which  they  were  appointed  well. 
Concerning  my  burial,  let  Lycon  do  as  he  pleases,  and  bury 
me  here  or  at  home,  just  as  he  likes ;  for  I  am  sure  that  he 
has  the  same  regard  for  propriety  that  I  myself  have.  And  I 
give  all  the  things  herein  mentioned,  in  the  confidence  that  he 
will  arrange  everything  properly.  The  witnesses  to  this  my 
will  are  Callinus  of  Hermione,  Ariston  of  Ceos,  and  Euphro- 
nius  of  Paaania." 

As  he  then  was  thoroughly  wise  in  everything  relating  to 
education,  and  every  branch  of  philosophy,  he  was  no  less 
prudent  and  careful  in  the  framing  of  his  will.  So  that  in 
this  respect  too,  he  deserves  to  be  admired  and  imitated. 


MAXIMUS. 

MAXIMUS  was  appointed  by  Oonstantius  preceptor  to  Julian. 
According  to  the  Christian  historians,  he  introduced  himself 
to  Julian  during  his  Asiatic  expedition  to  Nicomedia.  By 
accommodating  his  predictions  to  the  wishes  and  hopes  of  the 
emperor,  and  by  other  parasitical  arts,  he  gained  entire  pos- 
session of  bis  confidence.  The  courtiers,  as  usual,  followed 


212  MENEDEMUS. 

the  example  of  their  master,  and  Maximus  was  daily  loaded 
•with  neAv  honors.  He  accompanied  Julian  in  his  expedition 
into  Persia,  and  there,  by  the  assistance  of  divination  and 
flattery,  persuaded  him  that  he  would  rival  Alexander  in  the 
glory  of  conquest.  The  event,  however,  proved  as  unfortu- 
nate to  the  philosopher  as  to  the  hero  ;  for  Julian  being  slain 
in  battle,  after  the  short  reign  of  Jovian,  Maximus  fell  under 
the  displeasure  of  the  emperors  Valentinian  and  Valens,  and, 
for  the  imaginary  crime  of  magic,  underwent  a  long  course 
of  confinement  and  suffering,  which  was  not  the  less  truly  per- 
secution because  they  were  inflicted  upon  a  Pagan.  Maximus 
was  finally  sent  into  his  native  country,  and  there  fell  a  sacri- 
fice to  the  cruelty  of  the  pro-consul ,  Festus. 


MENEDEMUS. 

MENEDEMUS  was  one  of  those  who  belonged  to  the  school 
of  Phsedo ;  and  he  was  one  of  those  who  are  called  Theo- 
probidso,  being  the  son  of  Olisthenes,  a  man  of  noble  family, 
but  a  poor  man,  and  a  builder.  And  some  say  that  he  was  a 
tent-maker,  and  that  Menedemus  himself  learnt  both  trades. 
On  which  account,  when  he  on  one  occasion  brought  forward 
a  motion  for  some  decree,  a  man  of  the  name  of  Alexinius 
attacked  him,  saying  that  a  wise  man  had  no  need  to  draw  a 
tent  nor  a  decree. 

But  when  Menedemus  was  sent  by  the  Eretrians  to  Megara, 
as  one  of  the  garrison,  he  deserted  the  rest,  and  went  to  the 
Academy,  to  Plato ;  and,  being  charmed  by  him,  he  abandon- 
ed the  army  altogether.  And  when  Asclepiades,  the  Phlia- 
sian,  drew  him  over  to  him,  he  went  and  lived  in  Megara, 
near  Stilpo,  and  they  both  became  his  disciples.  And  from 
thence  they  sailed  to  Elis,  where  they  joined  Anchipylus  and 
Moschus,  who  belonged  to  Phtedo's  school.  And  up  to  this 


MENEDEMUS.  213 

time,  they  were  called  Eleans ;  and  they  were  also  called 
Eretrians,  from  the  native  country  of  Menedemus,  of  whom 
I  ain  now  speaking. 

Now  Menedemus  appears  to  have  been  a  very  severe  and 
rigid  man,  on  which  account  Crates,  parodying  a  description, 
speaks  of  him  thus  : — 

And  Asclepiades,  the  sage  of  Phlius, 
And  the  Eretrian  bull. 

And  Thnon  mentions  him  thus  : — 

Rise  up,  you  frowning,  bristling,  frothy  sage. 

And  he  was  a  man  of  such  excessive  rigor  of  principle,  that 
when  Eurylochus,  of  Cassandra,  had  been  invited  by  Antig- 
onus  to  come  to  him  in  company  with  Cleippides,  a  youth  of 
Cyzicus,  he  refused  to  go,  for  he  was  afraid  lest  Menedemus 
should  hear  of  it ;  for  he  was  very  severe  in  his  reproofs,  and 
very  free  spoken.  Accordingly,  when  a  young  man  behaved 
with  boldness  towards  him,  he  did  not  say  a  word,  but  took 
a  bit  of  stick  and  drew  on  the  floor  an  insulting  picture ;  until 
the  young  man,  perceiving  the  insult  that  was  meant  in 
the  presence  of  numbers  of  people,  went  away.  And  when 
Hierocles,  the  governor  of  the  Piraeus,  attacked  him  in  the 
temple  of  Arnphiaraus,  and  said  a  great  deal  about  the  taking 
of  Eretria,  he  made  no  other  reply  beyond  asking  what  An- 
tigonus  object  was  in  treating  him  as  he  did. 

On  another  occasion,  he  said  to  a  profligate  man  who  was 
giving  himself  airs,  "  Do  not  you  know  that  the  cabbage  is 
not  the  only  plant  that  has  a  pleasant  juice,  but  that  radishes 
have  it  also  ?"  And  once,  hearing  a  young  man  talk  very 
loudly,  he  said,  "  See  whom  you  have  behind  you."  "When 
Antigonus  consulted  him  whether  he  should  go  to  a  certain 
revel,  he  made  no  answer  beyond  desiring  those  who  brought 
him  the  message,  to  tell  him  that  he  was  the  son  of  a  king. 
"When  a  stupid  fellow  once  said  something  at  random  to  him, 
he  asked  him  whether  he  had  a  farm  ;  and  when  he  said  that 


214  MENEDEMUS. 

he  had,  and  a  large  stock  of  cattle,  he  said,  "  Go  then  and 
look  after  them,  lest,  if  you  neglect  them,  you  lose  theio,  and 
that  elegant  rusticity  of  yours  with  them."  He  was  once  asked 
whether  a  good  man  should  marry,  and  his  reply  was,  "  Do  I 
seem  to  you  to  be  a  good  man,  or  not  ?"  And  when  the  other 
said  he  did  ;  "  Well,"  said  he,  "  and  I  am  married."  On  one 
occasion,  a  person  said  that  there  were  a  great  many  good 
things,  so  he  asked  him  how  many;  and  whether  he  thought 
that  there  were  more  than  a  hundred.  And  as  he  could  not 
bear  the  extravagance  of  one  man  who  used  frequently  to  in- 
vite him  to  dinner,  once  when  he  was  invited  he  did  not  say 
a  single  word,  but  admonished  him  of  his  extravagance  in 
silence,  by  eating  nothing  but  olives. 

On  account  then  of  the  great  freedom  of  speech  in  which  he 
indulged,  he  was  very  near,  while  in  Cyprus,  at  the  court  of 
Nicorreon,  being  in  great  danger  with  his  friend  Asclepiades. 
For  when  the  king  Avas  celebrating  a  festival  at  the  beginning 
of  the  month,  and  had  invited  them  as  he  did  all  the  other 
philosophers,  Henedemus  said,  "  If  the  assemblage  of  such 
men  as  are  met  here  to-day  is  good,  a  festival  like  this  ought  to 
be  celebrated  every  day ;  but  if  it  is  not  good,  even  once  is 
too  often."  And  as  the  tyrant  made  answer  to  this  speech, 
"  that  he  kept  this  festival  in  order  to  have  leisure  in  it  to  lis- 
ten to  the  philosophers,"  he  behaved  with  even  more  austerity 
than  usual,  arguing,  even  while  the  feast  was  going  on,  that  it 
was  right  on  every  occasion  to  listen  to  philosophers ;  and  he 
went  on  this  way  till,  if  a  flute-player  had  not  interrupted 
their  discussion,  they  would  have  been  put  to  death.  In  ref- 
erence to  which,  when  they  were  overtaken  by  a  storm  in  a 
ship,  they  say  that  Asclepiades  said,  u  that  the  fine  playing  of 
a  flute-player  had  saved  them,  but  the  freedom  of  speech  of 
Menedemus  had  ruined  them." 

But  he  was,  they  say,  inclined  to  depart  a  good  deal  from 
the  usual  habits  and  discipline  of  a  school,  so  that  he  never 
regarded  any  order,  nor  were  the  seats  arranged  around  prop- 


MENEDEMUS,  215 

erly,  but  every  one  listened  to  him  while  lecturing,  standing 
up  or  sitting  down,  just  as  he  might  chance  to  be  at  the  mo- 
ment, Menedemus  himself  setting  the  example  of  this  irregular 
conduct.  But  in  other  respects,  it  is  said  that  he  was  a  ner- 
vous man,  and  very  fond  of  glory ;  so  that,  as  previously  he 
and  Asclepiades  had  been  fellow  journeymen  of  a  builder, 
when  Asclepiades  was  naked  on  the  roof  carrying  mortar, 
Menedemus  would  stand  in  front  of  him  to  screen  him  when 
he  saw  any  one  coming. 

When  he  applied  himself  to  politics  he  was  so  nervous,  that 
once,  when  setting  down  the  incense,  he  actually  missed  the 
incense  burner.  And  on  one  occasion,  when  Crates  was  stand- 
ing by  him,  and  reproaching  him  for  meddling  with  politics, 
he  ordered  some  men  to  put  him  in  prison.  But  he,  even  then, 
continued  not  the  less  to  watch  him  as  he  passed,  and  to  stand 
on  tiptoe  and  call  him  Agamemnon  and  Hegesipolis.  He  was 
also  in  some  degree  superstitious.  Accordingly,  once,  when 
he  was  at  an  inn  with  Asclepiades,  and  had  unintentionally 
eaten  some  meat  that  had  been  thrown  away,  when  he  was 
told  of  it  he  became  sick,  and  turned  pale,  until  Asclepiades 
rebuked  him,  telling  him  that  it  was  not  the  meat  itself  which 
disturbed  him,  but  only  the  idea  that  he  had  adopted.  But  in 
other  respects  he  was  a  high-minded  man,  with  notions  such 
as  became  a  gentleman. 

As  to  his  habit  of  body,  even  when  he  was  an  old  man  be 
retained  all  the  firmness  and  vigor  of  an  athlete,  with  firm 
flesh,  and  a  ruddy  complexion,  and  very  stout  and  fresh  look- 
ing. In  stature  he  was  of  moderate  size  ;  as  is  plain  from  the 
statue  of  him  which  is  at  Eretria,  in  the  Old  Stadium.  For  he 
is  there  represented  seated  almost  naked,  undoubtedly  for  the 
purpose  of  displaying  the  greater  part  of  his  body. 

He  was  very  hospitable  and  fond  of  entertaining  his  friends ; 
and  because  Eretria  was  unhealthy,  he  used  to  have  a  great 
many  parties,  particularly  of  poets  and  musicians.  And  he 
AV  us  vory  fond  of  Aratus  and  Lycophon  the  tragic  poet,  and 


216  MENEDEMUS. 

Antagoras  of  Khodes.  And  above  all  he  applied  himself  to 
the  study  of  Homer ;  and  next  to  him  to  that  of  the  Lyrio 
poets  ;  then  to  Sophocles,  and  also  to  Acliaeus,  to  whom  he  as- 
signed the  second  place  as  a  writer  of  satiric  dramas,  giving 
^Eschylus  the  first.  And  it  is  from  Achoaus  that  he  quoted 
these  verses  against  the  politicians  of  the  opposite  party  : — 

A  speedy  runner  once  was  overtaken 
By  weaker  men  than  he.    An  eagle  too, 
Was  beaten  by  a  tortoise  in  a  race. 

And  these  lines  are  out  of  the  satiric  play  of  Achseus,  called 
Omphale ;  so  that  they  are  mistaken  who  say  that  he  had 
never  read  anything  but  the  Medea  of  Euripides,  which  is 
found,  they  add,  in  the  collection  of  Neophron,  the  Sicyonian. 

Menedemus  was  not  easy  to  be  understood,  and  in  his  con- 
versation he  was  hard  to  argue  against.  He  spoke  on  every 
subject,  and  had  a  great  deal  of  invention  and  readiness.  But 
he  was  very  disputatious,  as  Antisthenes  says  in  his  Success- 
ions;  and  he  used  to  put  questions  of  this  sort:  "Is  one 
thing  different  from  another  thing  ?"  "  Yes."  "  And  is  ben- 
efiting a  person  something  different  from  the  good  ?"  "  Yes." 
"  Then  the  good  is  not  benefiting  a  person."  And  he,  as  it  is 
said,  discarded  all  negative  axioms,  using  none  but  affirmative 
ones  ;  and  of  these,  he  only  approved  of  the  simple  ones,  and 
rejected  all  that  were  not  simple  ;  saying  that  they  were  in- 
tricate and  perplexing.  But  Heraclides  says,  that  in  his  doc- 
trines he  was  a  thorough  disciple  of  Plato,  and  that  he  scorn- 
ed dialectics  ;  so  that  once,  when  Alexiuus  asked  him  whether 
he  had  left  off  beating  his  father,  he  said,  "  I  have  not  beaten 
him,  and  I  have  not  left  off;"  and  when  he  said  further  that 
he  ought  to  put  an  end  to  the  doubt  by  answering  explicitly, 
yes  or  no,  "  It  would  be  absurd,"  he  rejoined,  "  to  comply 
with  your  conditions  when  I  can  stop  you  at  the  entrance." 

When  Bion  was  attacking  the  soothsayers  with  great  per- 
severance, he  said  that  he  was  killing  the  dead  over  again. 
And  once,  when  he  heard  some  one  assert  that  the  greatest 


MENEDEMUS.  217 

good  was  to  succeed  in  everything  that  one  desires ;  he  said, 
"  It  is  a  much  greater  good  to  desire  what  is  proper."  But 
Antigonus,  of  Carystus,  tells  us,  that  he  never  wrote  or  com- 
posed any  work,  and  never  maintained  any  principle  tena- 
ciously. But  in  cross-questioning  he  was  so  contentious  as  to 
get  quite  black  in  the  face  before  he  went  away.  But  though 
he  was  so  violent  in  his  discourse,  he  was  wonderfully  gentle 
in  his  actions.  Accordingly,  though  he  used  to  mock  and 
ridicule  Alexinus  very  severely,  still  he  conferred  great  ben- 
efits on  him,  conducting  his  wife  from  Delphi  to  Chalcis  for 
him,  as  she  was  alarmed  about  the  danger  of  robbers  and 
banditti  in  the  road. 

And  he  was  a  very  Avarm  friend,  as  is  plain  from  his  attach- 
ment to  Asclepiades,  which  was  hardly  inferior  to  the  friend- 
ship of  Pylades  and  Orestes.  But  Asclepiades  was  the  elder 
of  the  two,  so  that  it  was  said  that  he  was  the  poet,  and  Me- 
nedemus  the  actor.  And  they  say,  that  on  one  occasion, 
Archipolis  bequeathed  them  three  thousand  pieces  of  money 
between  them,  they  had  such  a  vigorous  contest  as  to  which 
should  take  the  smaller  share,  that  neither  of  them  would 
receive  any  of  it. 

It  is  said  that  they  were  both  married,  and  that  Asclepiades 
was  married  to  the  mother,  and  Menedemus  to  the  daughter ; 
and  when  Asclepiades'  wife  died,  he  took  the  wife  of  Me- 
nedemus ;  and  Menedemus,  when  he  became  the  chief  man  of 
the  state,  married  another,  who  was  rich  ;  and  as  they  still 
maintained  one  house  in  common,  Menedemus  entrusted  the 
whole  management  to  his  former  wife.  Asclepiades  died  first 
at  Eretria,  being  of  great  age ;  having  lived  with  Menedemus 
with  great  economy,  though  they  had  ample  means.  So  that, 
when  on  one  occasion,  after  the  death  of  Asclepiades,  a  friend 
of  his  came  to  a  banquet,  and  when  the  slaves  refused  him 
admittance,  Menedemus  ordered  them  to  admit  him,  saying 
that  Asclepiades  opened  the  door  for  him,  even  now  that  he 
was  under  the  earth.  And  the  men  who  chiefly  supported 

10 


218  MENEDEMCS, 

them,  were  Hyporicus,  the  Macedonian,  and  Agetor,  the  La- 
mian.  And  Agetor  gave  each  of  them  thirty  minee,  and 
Hyporicus  gave  Menedemus  two  thousand  drachmas  to  portion 
his  daughters  with ;  and  he  had  three,  as  Heraclides  tells  us, 
the  children  of  his  wife,  who  was  a  native  of  Oropus. 

And  he  used  to  give  banquets  in  this  fashion :  First  of  all, 
he  would  sit  at  dinner,  with  two  or  three  friends,  till  late  in 
the  day,  and  then  he  would  invite  in  any  one  who  came  to 
see  him,  even  if  they  had  already  dined  ;  and  if  any  one  came 
too  soon,  they  would  walk  up  and  down,  and  ask  those  who 
came  out  of  the  house  what  there  was  on  the  table,  and  what 
o'clock  it  was ;  and  then,  if  there  were  only  vegetables  and 
salt-fish,  they  would  depart ;  but  if  they  heard  it  was  meat, 
they  would  go  in.  And  during  the  summer,  mats  of  rushes 
were  laid  upon  the  couches,  and  in  winter,  soft  cushions;  and 
each  guest  was  expected  to  bring  a  pillow  for  himself.  And 
the  cup  that  was  carried  round  did  not  hold  more  than  a 
cotyla.  And  the  second  course  consisted  of  lupins  or  beans, 
and  sometimes  fruits,  such  as  pears,  pomegranates,  pulse,  and 
sometimes,  by  Jove,  dried  figs.  And  all  these  circumstances 
are  detailed  by  Lycophron,  in  his  satiric  dramas,  which  he 
inscribed  with  the  name  of  Menedemus,  making  his  play  a 
panegyric  on  the  philosopher.  And  the  following  are  some 
of  the  lines  : — 

After  a  temperate  feast,  a  small-sized  cup 
Is  handed  round  with  mode-ration  due ; 
And  conversation  wise  makes  the  dessert. 

At  first,  now,  he  was  not  thought  much  of,  being  called 
cynic  and  trifler  by  the  Eretrians  ;  but  subsequently,  he  was 
so  much  admired  by  his  countrymen,  that  they  entrusted  him 
with  the  chief  government  of  the  State.  And  he  was  sent  en 
embassies  to  Ptolemy  and  Lysimachus,  and  was  greatly 
honored  everywhere.  He  was  sent  as  envoy  to  Demetrius; 
and,  as  the  city  used  to  pay  him  two  hundred  talents  a  year, 
he  persuaded  him  to  remit  fifty.  And  having  been  falsely 


MENEDEMUS.  219 

accused  to  him,  as  having  betrayed  the  city  to  Ptolemy,  he 
defended  himself  from  the  charge,  in  a  letter.  And  the  tradi- 
tion is,  that  a  man  of  the  name  of  ^Eschylus,  who  was  one  of 
the  opposite  party  in  the  State,  was  in  the  habit  of  making 
these  false  charges.  It  is  well  known,  too,  that  he  was  sent 
on  a  most  important  embassy  to  Demetrius,  on  the  subject  of 
Oropus. 

Antigonus  was  greatly  attached  to  him,  and  professed  him- 
self his  pupil ;  and  when  he  defeated  the  barbarians,  near 
Lysimachia,  Menedemus  drew  up  a  decree  for  him,  in  simple 
terms,  free  from  all  flattery. 

From  these  circumstances,  and  because  of  his  friendship  for 
him,  as  shown  in  other  matters,  he  was  suspected  of  betray- 
ing the  city  to  him ;  and  being  impeached  by  Aristodemus, 
he  left  the  city,  and  returned  to  Oropus,  and  there  took  up  his 
abode  in  the  temple  of  Amphiaraus  ;  and  as  some  golden  gob- 
lets which  were  there  were  lost,  he  was  ordered  to  depart  by 
a  general  vote  of  the  Boeotians.  Leaving  Oropus,  and  being 
in  a  state  of  great  despondency,  he  entered  his  country  secret- 
ly ;  and  taking  with  him  his  wife  and  daughters,  he  went  to 
the  court  of  Antigonus,  and  there  died  of  a  broken  heart. 

But  Heraclides  gives  an  entirely  different  account  of  him ; 
saying,  that  while  he  was  the  chief  councillor  of  the  Eretrians, 
be  more  than  once  preserved  the  liberties  of  the  city  from 
those  who  would  have  brought  in  Demetrius  the  tyrant ;  so  that 
he  never  could  have  betrayed  the  city  to  Antigonus,  and  the 
accusation  must  have  been  false ;  and  that  he  went  to  the 
court  of  Antigonus,  and  endeavored  to  effect  the  deliverance 
of  his  country ;  and  as  he  could  make  no  impression  on  him, 
he  fell  into  despondency,  and  starved  himself  for  seven  days, 
and  so  he  died.  And  Antigonus  of  Carystus  gives  a  similar 
account ;  and  Persaeus  was  the  only  man  with  whom  he  had 
an  implacable  quarrel ;  for  he  thought  that  when  Antigonus 
himself  was  willing  to  re-establish  the  democracy  among  the 
Eretrians  for  his  sake,  Persseus  prevented  him.  And  on  this 


220  MENEDEMUS. 

account  Menedemus  once  attacked  him  at  a  banquet,  saying 
many  other  things,  and  among  them,  "  He  may,  indeed,  be  a 
philosopher,  but  he  is  the  worst  man  that  lives  or  that  ever 
will  live." 

And  he  died,  according  to  Heraclides,  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
four.     And  we  have  written  the  following  epigram  on  him  : — 

I  've  heard  your  fate,  O  Menedemus,  that  of  your  own  accord 
You  starved  yourself  for  seven  days  and  died  ; 
Acting  like  an  Eretrian,  but  not  much  like  a  man, 
For  spiritless  despair  appears  your  guide. 

We  add  the  following  from  Enfield's  Brucker : — 
Menedemus,  though  well  descended,  was  obliged  through 
poverty  to  submit  to  the  manual  employment  of  an  house- 
builder.  He  formed  an  early  intimacy  with  Asclepiades,  a 
Phliasian,  who  was  a  fellow-laborer  with  him  in  his  humble 
occupation.  Having  minds  more  formed  for  study  than  for 
labor,  they  determined  to  devote  themselves  to  the  pursuit  of 
philosophy.  For  this  purpose  they  left  their  native  country, 
and  went  to  Athens,  where  Plato  then  presided  in  the 
Academy.  It  was  soon  observed  that  these  strangers  had  no 
visible  means  of  subsistence  ;  and,  according  to  a  law  of  Solon, 
they  were  cited  before  the  court  of  Areopagus,  to  give  an  ac- 
count of  the  manner  in  which  they  were  supported.  The 
master  of  one  of  the  public  prisons  was,  at  their  request,  sent 
for,  and  attested  that,  every  night,  these  two  youths  went 
among  the  criminals,  and,  by  grinding  with  them,  earned  two 
drachmas,  which  enabled  them  to  spend  the  day  in  the  study  of 
philosophy.  The  magistrates,  struck  with  admiration  at  such 
an  extraordinary  proof  of  an  indefatigable  thirst  after  knowl- 
edge, dismissed  them  with  high  applause,  and  presented  them 
with  two  hundred  drachmas.*  They  met  with  several  other 
friends,  who  liberally  supplied  them  with  whatever  was  neces- 
sary to  enable  them  to  prosecute  their  studies. 
By  the  advice  of  his  friend,  and  probably  in  his  society, 

*  About  six  pounds. 


MENEDEMUS.  221 

Menedemus  went  from  Athens  to  Megara,  to  attend  upon  tin, 
instructions  of  Stilpo.  He  expressed  his  approbation  of  tht 
manner  in  which  this  philosopher  taught,  by  giving  him  th« 
appellation  of  The  Liberal.  He  next  visited  Elis,  where  he 
beeaine  a  disciple  of  Phsedo,  and  afterwards  his  successor. 
Transferring  the  Eliac  school  from  Elis  to  his  native  city,  ho 
gave  it  the  name  of  Eretrian.  In  his  school  he  neglected 
those  forms  which  were  commonly  observed  in  places  of  this 
kind :  his  hearers  were  not,  as  usual,  placed  on  circular 
benches  around  him  ;  but  every  one  attended  him  in  whatever 
posture  he  pleased,  standing,  walking,  or  sitting. 

At  first  Menedemus  was  received  by  the  Eretrians  with  con- 
tempt ;  and,  on  account  of  the  vehemence  with  which  he  dis- 
puted, he  was  often  branded  with  the  appellations  of  cur,  and 
madman.  But  afterwards  he.  rose  into  high  esteem,  and  was 
intrusted  with  a  public  office,  to  which  was  annexed  an  an- 
nual stipend  of  two  hundred  talents.  He  discharged  the 
trust  with  fidelity,  but  accepted  only  a  fourth  part  of  the  ap- 
pointment. 

Menedemus  possessed  great  readiness  and  versatility  of 
genius,  and  was  able  to  dispute  on  every  subject  with  keen- 
ness and  fluency.  He  declared  his  opinions  with  freedom,  in- 
veighed with  severity  against  the  vices  of  others,  and  by  the 
purity  of  his  own  manners  commanded  universal  respect.  He 
observed  the  strictest  moderation  in  his  manner  of  living. 
His  entertainments,  which  were  frequented  by  many  philoso- 
phers and  men  of  distinction,  were  simple  and  frugal,  consist- 
ing chiefly  of  vegetables,  and  were  always  enlivened  by  liberal 
conversation.  He  died  about  the  hundred  and  twenty-fourth 
Olympiad. 

There  was  another  Menedemus,  of  whom  the  following  is 
related.  He  was  a  disciple  of  Celotes  of  Lampsacus  : 

He  proceeded,  as  Hippobotus  tells,  to  such  a  great  degree 
of  superstition,  that  he  assumed  the  garb  of  a  fury,  and  went 
about  saying  that  he  had  come  from  hell  to  take  notice  of  all 

19* 


222  MONIMUS. 

who  did  wrong,  in  order  that  he  might  descend  thither  again 
and  make  his  report  to  the  deities  who  abode  in  that  country. 
And  this  was  his  dress :  a  tunic  of  a  dark  color  reaching  to 
his  feet,  and  a  purple  girdle  round  his  waist,  an  Arcadian  hat 
on  his  head  with  the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac,  embroidered 
on  it,  tragic  buskins,  a  preposterously  long  beard,  and  an  ashen 
staff  in  his  hand. 


MONIMUS. 

MONIMTTS  was  a  Syracusan,  and  also  a  slave  of  some  Corin- 
thian money-changer.  Xeniades,  who  bought  Diogenes,  used 
often-  to  come  to  him,  extolling  the  excellency  of  Diogenes, 
both  tn  actions  and  words,  till  he  excited  a  great  affection  for 
the  man  in  the  mind  of  Monimus.  For  he  immediately  feigned 
madness,  and  threw  about  all  the  money  and  all  the  coins  that 
were  on  the  table,  until  his  master  discarded  him,  and  then  he 
straightway  went  to  Diogenes  and  became  his  pupil.  He  also 
followed  Orates  the  Cynic,  a  good  deal,  and  devoted  himself  to 
the  same  studies  as  he  did.  His  master  regarded  this  conduct 
as  additional  evidence  of  his  madness. 

Monimus  became  a  very  eminent  man,  so  that  even  Menan- 
der,  the  comic  poet,  speaks  of  him  in  the  Hippocomus  thus : — 

There  is  a  man,  O  Philo,  named  Monimus, 
A  wise  man,  though  bat  little  known,  and  one 
Who  bears  a  wallet  at  his  back,  and  is  not 
Content  with  one  but  three.   He  never  spoke 
A  single  sentence,  by  great  Jove  I  swear, 
Like  this  one,  "  know  thyself,"  or  any  other 
Of  the  oft-quoted  proverbs:  all  such  sayings 
He  scorned,  as  he  did  beg  his  way  through  dirt ; 
Teaching  that  all  opinion  is  but  vanity. 

He  was  a  man  of  such  gravity  that  he  despised  glory  an'd 
sought  only  for  truth. 


PI  T  T  A  C  U  S .  223 


MUSONIUS. 

MUSONITJS  a  Babylonian  (confounded  by  Suidas  with  Muso- 
nius  the  Tuscan,  a  Stoic  philosopher)  is  ranked  by  Eunapius 
among  the  most  virtuous  and  excellent  of  the  Modern  Cynics. 
Philostratus  speaks  of  him  as  next  to  Apollonius  in  wisdom, 
and  as  an  eminent  philosopher.  His  cynical  spirit  would  not 
permit  him  to  spare  the  vices  of  Nero ;  and  the  resentment  of 
that  tyrant  consigned  him  to  prison.  "Whilst  he  was  in  con- 
finement he  formed  a  friendship  with  Apollonius,  and  held  a 
correspondence  with  him,  some  specimens  of  which  are  pre- 
served by  Philostratus.  He  was  at  last  banished  to  the  Isth- 
mus of  Greece,  and  condemned  to  remain  a  slave,  and  to 
labor  daily  with  the  spade.  His  friend  Demetrius,  seeing  him 
in  this  condition,  expressed  great  concern  at  his  misfortunes  ; 
upon  which  Musonius,  striking  his  spade  firmly  in  the  ground, 
said,  "  Why,  Demetrius,  do  you  lament  to  see  me  digging  in 
the  Isthmus  ?  You  might  indeed  lament  if  you  saw  me,  like 
Nero,  playing  upon  the  harp."  Julian  speaks  with  admiration 
of  his  magnanimity.  The  time  of  his  death  is  uncertain  ;  and 
none  of  his  writings  remain. 


PITTACUS. 

PITTAOTTS  was  a  native  of  Hitylene,  and  son  of  Hyrradius. 
But  Duris  says,  that  his  father  was  a  Thraciau.  He  in  union 
with  the  brothers  of  AlcaBus,  put  down  Melanchrus  the  tyrant 
of  Lesbos.  In  the  battle  which  took  place  between  the  Athen- 
ians and  Mitylenaeans  on  the  subject  of  the  district  of  Achilis, 
he  was  the  Mityleneean  general ;  the  Athenian  commander 
being  Phrynon,  a  Pancratiast,  who  had  gained  the  victory  at 
Olympia.  Pittacus  agreed  to  meet  him  in  single  combat,  and 


224  PITTACUS. 

having  a  net  under  his  shield,  he  entangled,  Phrynon  without 
his  being  aware  of  it  beforehand,  and  so,  having  killed  him, 
he  preserved  the  district  in  dispute  to  his  countrymen.  But 
Appollodorus,  in  his  Chronicles,  says,  that  subsequently,  the 
Athenians  had  a  trial  with  the  Mitylenseans  about  the  district, 
and  that  the  cause  was  submitted  to  Periander,  who  decided  it 
in  favor  of  the  Athenians. 

In  consequence  of  this  victory  the  Mitylenseans  held  Pitta- 
cus  in  the  greatest  honor,  and  committed  the  supreme  power 
into  his  hands  which  he  held  for  ten  years,  and  then,  when  he 
had  brought  the  city  and  constitution  into  good  order,  he 
resigned  the  government.  He  lived  ten  years  after  that,  and 
the  Mitylenseans  assigned  him  an  estate,  which  he  consecrated 
to  the  God,  and  to  this  day  it  is  called  the  Pittacian  land.  But 
Spsicrates  says  that  he  cut  off  a  small  portion  of  it,  saying  that 
half  was  more  than  the  whole ;  and  when  Croesus  offered  him 
some  money  he  would  not  accept  it,  as  he  said  he  had 
already  twice  as  much  as  he  wanted ;  for  that  he  had  succeed- 
ed to  the  inheritance  of  his  brother,  who  had  died  without 
children. 

But  Pamphila  says,  in  the  second  book  of  his  Commenta- 
ries, that  he  had  a  son  named  Tyrrhaaus,  who  was  killed  while 
sitting  in  a  barber's  shop,  at  Cyma,  by  a  brazier,  who  threw  an 
axe  at  him ;  and  that  the  Cymaeans  sent  the  murderer  to  Pit- 
tacus,  who  when  he  had  learnt  what  had  been  done,  dismissed 
the  man,  saying,  "Pardon  is  better  than  repentance."  But 
Heraclitus  says  that  the  true  story  is,  that  he  had  got  Alca3us 
into  his  power,  and  that  he  released  him,  saying,  "Pardon  is 
better  than  punishment."  He  was  also  a  law-giver ;  and  he 
made  a  law  that  if  a  man  committed  a  crime  while  drunk,  he 
should  have  double  punishment ;  in  the  hope  of  deterring  men 
from  getting  drunk,  as  wine  was  very  plentiful  in  the  island. 

It  was  a  saying  of  his  that  it  was  a  hard  thing  to  be  good, 
and  this  apophthegm  is  quoted  by  Simonides,  who  says,  "  It 
was  a  saying  of  Pittacus,  that  it  is  a  hard  thing  to  be  really  a 


PITTACUS.  225 

good  man."  Plato  also  mentions  it  in  his  Protagoras.  An- 
other of  his  sayings  was,  "  Even  the  Gods  cannot  strive  against 
necessity."  Another  was,  "Power  shows  the  man."  Being 
once  asked  what  was  best,  he  replied,  "  To  do  what  one  is 
doing  at  the  moment  well."  When  Croesus  put  the  question 
to  him,  "  What  is  the  greatest  power  ?"  "  The  power,"  he  re- 
plied, '•  of  the  variegated  wood,"  meaning  the  wooden  tablets 
of  the  laws.  He  used  to  say  too,  that  there  were  some  victo- 
ries without  bloodshed.  He  said  once  to  a  man  of  Phocaea, 
who  was  saying  that  we  ought  to  seek  out  a  virtuous  man, 
"  But  if  you  seek  ever  so  much  you  will  not  find  one."  Some 
people  once  asked  him  what  thing  was  very  grateful  ?  and  he 
replied,  "  Time."— What  was  uncertain?  "The  future." — 
What  was  trusty?  "The  land." — What  was  treacherous? 
"  The  sea."  Another  saying  of  his  was,  that  it  was  the  part 
of  wise  men,  before  difficult  circumstances  arose,  to  provide 
for  their  not  arising ;  but  that  it  was  the  part  of  brave  men  to 
make  the  best  of  existing  circumstances.  He  used  to  say  too, 
"Do  not  say  before  hand  what  you  are  going  to  do  ;  for  if  you 
fail,  you  will  be  laughed  at."  "  Do  not  reproach  a  man  with 
his  misfortunes,  fearing  lest  Nemesis  may  overtake  you."  "  If 
you  have  received  a  deposit,  restore  it."  "  Forbear  to  speak 
evil  not  only  of  your  friends,  but  also  of  your  enemies." 
"Practice  piety,  with  temperance."  "Cultivate  truth,  good 
faith,  experience,  cleverness,  sociability,  and  industry."  "Watch 
your  opportunity." 

He  wrote  also  some  songs,  of  which  the  following  is  the 
most  celebrated  one: — 

The  wise  will  only  face  the  wicked  man, 

With  bow  in  hand  well  bent, 

And  quiver  full  of  arrows — 

For  such  a  tongue  as  his  says  nothing  true, 

Prompted  by  a  wily  heart 

To  utter  double  speeches. 

He  also  composed  six  hundred  verses  in  elegiac  metre  ;  and 


226  PITTACUS. 

he  wrote  a  treatise  in  prose,  on  Laws,  addressed  to  his  country- 
men. 

He  flourished  about  the  forty-second  Olympiad  ;  and  he  died 
when  Aristomenes  was  Archon,  in  the  third  year  of  the  fifty- 
second  Olympiad  ;  having  lived  more  than  seventy  years,  being 
a  very  old  man.  On  his  tomb  is  this  inscription : — 

Lesbos  who  bore  him  here,  with  tears  doth  bury 
Hyrradius'  worthy  son,  wise  Pittacus. 

There  was  also  another  Pittacus,  a  law-giver,  who  was  call- 
ed Pittacus  the  less. 

But  it  is  said  that  the  wise  Pittacus  once,  when  a  young  man 
consulted  him  on  the  subject  of  marriage,  made  him  the  follow- 
ing answer,  which  is  thus  given  by  Callimachus  in  his  Epi- 
grams : — 

Hyrradius'  prudent  son,  old  Pittacus, 

The  pride  of  Mitylene,  once  was  asked 

By  an  Atarnean  stranger  ;  "  Tell  me,  sage, 

I  have  two  marriages  proposed  to  me ; 

One  maid  my  equal  is  iu  birth  and  riches  ; 

The  other 's  far  above  me  ; — which  is  best? 

Advise  me  now  which  shall  I  take  to  wife  ?" 

Thus  spoke  the  stranger  ;  but  the  aged  prince, 

Raising  his  old  man's  staff  before  his  face, 

Said,  "  These  will  tell  you  all  you  want  to  know  ;" 

And  pointed  to  some  boys,  who  with  quick  lashea 

Were  driving  whipping  tops  along  the  street. 

"  Follow  their  steps,"  said  he ;  so  he  went  near  them 

And  heard  them  say,  "  Let  each  now  mind  his  own." 

So  when  the  stranger  heard  the  boys  speak  thus, 

He  pondered  on  their  words,  and  laid  aside 

Ambitious  thoughts  of  an  unequal  marriage, 

As  then  he  took  to  shame  the  poorer  bride, 

So  too  do  you,  O  reader,  mind  thy  own. 

It  seems  that  he  may  have  here  spoken  from  experience,  for 
his  own  wife  was  of  more  noble  birth  than  himself,  since  she 
was  the  sister  of  Draco,  the  son  of  Penthilus ;  and  she  gave 
herself  great  airs,  and  tyrannized  over  him. 

Alcseas  calls  Pittacus,  splay-footed  draggler,  because  he  was 


PERIANDER.  227 

splay-footed,  and  used  to  drag  his  feet  in  walking ;  he  also 
called  him  chap-footed,  because  he  had  scars  on  his  feet  which 
were  called  chaps.  And  supercilious*  implying  that  he  gave 
himself  airs  without  reason.  And  paunch  and  'belly  because, 
he  was  fat.  He  also  called  him  eater-in-the-dark  because  he 
had  weak  eyes,  and  the  lazy  and  dirty.  He  used  to  grind  corn 
for  the  sake  of  exercise,  as  Clearchus,  the  philosopher,  relates. 
There  is  a  letter  of  his  extant,  which  runs  thus : — 

PITTAOUS    TO    CKCESUS. 

You  invite  me  to  come  to  Lyclia  in  order  that  I  may  see 
your  riches ;  but,  I,  even  without  seeing  them,  do  not  doubt 
that  the  son  of  Alyattes  is  the  richest  of  monarchs.  But  I 
should  get  no  good  by  going  to  Sardis ;  for  I  do  not  want 
gold  myself,  but  what  I  have  is  sufficient  for  myself  and  my 
companions.  Still,  I  will  come,  in  order  to  become  acquainted 
with  you  as  0  }  ospitable  man. 


PERIANDER. 

was  a  Corinthian,  the  son  of  Cypselus,  of  the 
family  of  the  Heraclidre.  He  married  Lyside  (whom  he  him- 
self called  Melissa),  the  daughter  of  Procles  the  tyrant  of 
Epidaurus,  ao<i  of  Eristhenea  the  daughter  of  Aristocrates,  and 
sister  of  Arist/odemus,  who  governed  nearly  all  Arcadia,  and 
had  by  her  two  sons  Cypselus  and  Lycophron,  the  younger  of 
whom  was  a  clever  boy,  but  the  elder  was  deficient  in  intel- 
lect. At  a  subsequent  period  he  in  a  rage  either  kicked  or 
threw  his  wife  down  stairs  when  she  was  pregnant,  and  so 
killed  her,  being  wrought  upon  by  the  false  accusations  of  his 
concubines,  whom  he  afterwards  burnt  alive.  And  the  child, 
whose  name  was  Lycophron,  he  sent  away  to  Corcyra  because 
he  grieved  for  his  mother. 


228  PERIANDER. 

But  afterwards,  when  he  was  now  extremely  old,  he  sent 
for  him  back  again,  in  order  that  he  might  succeed  to  the 
tyranny.  But  the  Oorcyreans,  anticipating  his  intention,  put 
him  to  death,  at  which  he  was  greatly  enraged,  and  sent  their 
children  to  Corcyra  to  be  made  eunuchs  of ;  and  when  the  ship 
came  near  to  Samos,  the  youths,  having  made  supplications  to 
Juno,  were  saved  by  the  Samians.  And  he  fell  into  despond- 
ency and  died,  being  eighty  years  old.  Sosicrates  says  that 
he  died  forty-one  years  before  Croesus,  in  the  last  year  of  the 
forty-eighth  Olympiad.  Herodotus,  in  the  first  book  of  his 
History,  says  that  he  was  connected  by  ties  of  hospitality  with 
Thrasybulus  the  tyrant  of  Miletus.  And  Aristippus,  in  the 
first  book  of  his  Treatise  on  Ancient  Luxury,  tells  the  follow- 
ing story  of  him ;  that  his  mother  Cratea  fell  in  love  with 
him,  and  introduced  herself  secretly  into  his  bed  ;  and  he  was 
delighted  ;  but  when  the  truth  was  discovered  he  became  very 
oppressive  to  all  his  subjects,  because  he  was  grieved  at  the 
discovery.  Ephorus  relates  that  he  made  a  vow  that,  if  he 
gained  the  victory  at  Olyrnpia  in  the  chariot  race,  he  would 
dedicate  a  golden  statue  to  the  God.  Accordingly  he  gained 
the  victory  ;  but  being  in  want  of  gold,  and  seeing  the  women 
at  some  national  festival  beautifully  adorned,  he  took  away 
their  golden  ornaments,  and  then  sent  the  offering  which  he 
had  vowed. 

But  some  writers  say  that  he  was  anxious  that  his  tomb 
should  not  be  known,  and  that  with  that  object  he  adopted 
the  following  contrivance.  He  ordered  two  young  men  to  go 
out  by  night,  indicating  a  particular  road  by  which  they  were 
to  go,  and  to  kill  the  first  man  they  met,  and  bury  him  ;  after 
them  he  sent  out  four  other  men  who  were  to  kill  and  bury 
them.  Again  he  sent  out  a  still  greater  number  against  these 
four,  with  similar  instructions.  And  in  this  manner  he  put 
himself  in  the  way  of  the  first  pair,  and  was  slain,  and  the 
Corinthians  erected  a  cenotaph  over  him  with  the  following 
inscription  : — 


PERIANDER.  229 

The  sea-beat  land  of  Corinth  in  her  bosom, 
Doth  here  embrace  her  ruler  Periander, 
Greatest  of  all  men  for  his  wealth  and  wisdom. 

We  ourselves  have  also  written  an  epigram  upon  him : — 

Grieve  not  when  disappointed  of  a  wish, 

But  be  couteM  with  what  the  Gods  may  give  you— 

For  the  great  Periander  died  unhappy, 

At  failing  in  an  object  he  desired. 

It  was  a  saying  of  Ms  that  we  ought  not  to  do  anything  for 
the  sake  of  money ;  for  that  we  ought  only  to  acquire  such 
gains  as  are  allowable.  He  composed  apophthegms  in  verse 
to  the  number  of  two  thousand  lines  ;  and  said  that  those  who 
wished  to  wield  absolute  power  in  safety,  should  be  guarded 
by  tbe  good  will  of  their  countrymen,  and  not  by  arms.  And 
once,  being  asked  why  he  assumed  tyrannical  power,  he  re- 
plied, "Because,  to  abdicate  ii  voluntarily,  and  to  have  it 
taken  from  one,  are  both,  dargerous."  The  following  sayings 
also  belong  to  him  : — Tranquillity  is  a  good  tiling. — Rashness 
is  dangerous. — Gain  is  disgraceful. — Democracy  is  better  than 
tyranny. — Pleasures  are  transitory,  but  honor  is  immortal. — 
Be  moderate  when  prosperous,  but  prudent  when  unfortunate. 
— Be  the  same  to  your  friends  when  they  are  prosperous,  and 
when  they  are  unfortunate. — "Whatever  you  agree  to  do,  ob- 
serve.— Do  not  divulge  secrets. — Punish  net  only  those  who 
do  wrong,  but  those  who  intend  to  do  so. 

This  prince  was  the  first  who  had  body-guards,  and  who 
changed  a  legitimate  power  into  a  tyranny ;  and  he  would 
not  allow  any  one  who  chose  to  live  in  his  city. 

And  he  flourished  about  the  thirty-eighth  Olympiad,  and 
enjoyed  absolute  power  for  forty  years.  But  Sotion,  and 
Heraclides,  and  Pamphila,  in  the  fifth  book  of  her  Comment- 
aries, says  that  there  were  two  Perianders ;  the  one  a  tyrant, 
and  the  other  a  wise  man  and  a  native  Oxe  Ambram.  And 
Neanthes  of  Cyzicus  makes  the  same  assertion,  a<Htay  that 
the  two  men  were  cousins  to  one  another.  Ai?d 

20 


230  PERIANDER. 

says,  that  it  was  the  Corinthian  Periander  who  was  the  wise 
one ;  but  Plato  contradicts  him.  The  saying — "  Practice  does 
everything,"  is  his.  He  it  was,  also,  who  proposed  to  cut 
through  the  Isthmus. 

The  following  letter  of  his  is  quoted : — 

PERIANDER   TO    THE    WISE   MEN. 

I  give  great  thanks  to  Apollo  of  Delphi  that  my  letters  are 
able  to  determine  you  all  to  meet  together  at  Corinth  ;  and  I 
will  receive  you  all,  as  you  may  be  well  assured,  in  a  manner 
that  becomes  free  citizens.  I  hear  also  that  last  year  you  met 
at  Sardis,  at  the  court  of  the  King  of  Lydia.  So  now  do  not 
hesitate  to  come  to  me,  who  am  the  tyrant  of  Corinth ;  for 
the  Corinthians  will  all  be  delighted  to  see  you  come  to  the 
house  of  Periander. 

There  is  this  letter  too  : — 

PERIANDER  TO   PROOLE8. 

The  injury  of  my  wife  was  unintended  by  me ;  and  you 
have  done  wrong  in  alienating  from  me  the  mind  of  my  child. 
I  desire  you,  therefore,  either  to  restore  me  to  my  place  in  his 
affections,  or  I  will  revenge  myself  on  you  ;  for  I  have  myself 
mad©  atonement  for  the  death  of  your  daughter,  by  burning 
in  her  tomb  the  clothes  of  all  the  Corinthian  women.* 

Thrasybulus  also  wrote  him  a  letter  in  the  following 
terms : — 

I  have  given  no  answer  to  your  messenger ;  but  having 
taken  him  into  a  field,  I  struck  with  my  walking-stick  all  the 
nighest  ears  of  corn,  and  cut  off  their  tops,  while  he  was  walk- 
ing with  me.  And  he  will  report  to  you,  if  you  ask  him, 
everything  which  he  heard  or  saw  while  with  me ;  and  do 
you  act  accordingly  if  you  wish  to  preserve  your  power  safely, 

*  Herodotus  mentions  the  case  of  Periander's  children,  iii.  50,  and  the  death 
^f  his  wife,  and  his  burning  the  clothes  of  all  the  Corinthian  women,  v.  92. 


PHERECYDES.  231 

taking  off  the  most  eminent  of  the  citizens,  whether  lie  seems 
an  enemy  to  you  or  not,  as  even  his  companions  are  deserved- 
ly objects  of  suspicion  to  a  man  possessed  of  supreme  power. 


PHERECYDES. 

PHEREOYDES  was  a  Syrian,  the  son  of  Babys,  and  a  pupil 
of  Pittacus.  Theopompus  says  that  he  was  the  first  person 
who  ever  wrote  among  the  Greeks  on  the  subject  of  Natural 
Philosophy  and  the  Gods.  And  there  are  many  marvellous 
stories  told  of  him.  For  it  is  said  that  he  was  walking  along 
the  sea-shore  at  Samos,  and  that  seeing  a  ship  sailing  by  with 
a  fair  wind,  he  said  that  it  would  soon  sink  ;  and  presently  it 
sank  before  their  eyes.  At  another  time  he  was  drinking 
some  water  which  had  been  drawn  up  out  of  a  well,  and  he 
foretold  that  within  three  days  there  would  be  an  earthquake ; 
and  there  was  one.  And  as  he  was  going  up  to  Olympia,  and 
had  arrived  at  Messene,  he  advised  his  entertainer,  Perilaus, 
to  migrate  from  the  city  with  all  his  family,  but  that  Perilaus 
would  not  be  guided  by  him ;  and  afterwards  Messene  was 
taken. 

He  is  said  to  have  told  the  Lacedaemonians  to  honor  neither 
gold  nor  silver,  as  Theopompus  says  in  his  Marvels  ;  and  it  is 
reported  that  Hercules  laid  this  injunction  on  him  in  a  dream, 
and  that  the  same  night  he  appeared  also  to  the  kings  of 
Sparta,  and  enjoined  them  to  be  guided  by  Pherecydes ;  but 
some  attribute  these  stories  to  Pythagoras. 

Hermippus  relates  that  when  there  was  a  war  between  the 
Ephesians  and  Magnesians,  he,  wishing  the  Ephesians  to  con- 
quer, asked  some  one,  who  was  passing  by,  from  whence  he 
came?  and  when  he  said,  "  From  Ephesus,"  "  Drag  me  now," 
said  he,  "  by  the  legs,  and  place  me  in  the  territory  of  the 
Magnesians,  and  tell  your  fellow  countrymen  to  bury  me  there 


232  PHERECYDES. 

after  the}7  have  got  the  victory ;  and  that  he  went  and  re- 
ported that  Pherecydes  had  given  him  this  order.  And  so 
they  went  forth  the  next  day  and  defeated  the  Magnesians ; 
and  as  Pherecydes  was  dead,  they  buried  him  there  and  paid 
him  very  splendid  honors. 

But  some  writers  say  that  he  went  to  Delphi,  and  threw 
himself  down  from  the  Oorycian  hill ;  Aristoxenus,  in  his 
History  of  Pythagoras  and  his  Friends,  says  that  Pherecydes 
fell  sick  and  died,  and  was  buried  by  Pythagoras  in  Delos. 
But  others  say  that  he  died  of  the  lousy  disease ;  and  when 
Pythagoras  came  to  see  him,  and  asked  him  how  he  was,  he 
put  his  finger  through  the  door,  and  said,  "  You  may  see  by 
my  skin."  And  from  this  circumstance  that  expression  passed 
into  a  proverb  among  the  philosophers,  when  affairs  are  going 
on  badly ;  and  those  who  apply  it  to  affairs  that  are  going  on 
well,  make  a  blunder.  He  used  to  say,  also,  that  the  Gods 
call  their  table  tliuros,  i.  e.  a  social  table.  It  also  means, 
money-changer's  table. 

And  I  myself  have  composed  an  epigram  on  him  in  the 
Pherecratean  metre : — 

The  story  is  reported, 

That  noble  Pherecydes, 

Whom  Syros  calls  her  owu, 

Was  eaten  up  by  lice  ; 

And  so  he  bade  his  friends. 

Convey  his  corpse  away 

To  the  Magnesian  laud, 

That  he  might  victory  give 

To  holy  Ephesus. 

For  well  the  God  had  said, 

(Though  he  alone  did  know 

Th'  oracular  prediction), 

That  this  was  fate's  decree. 

So  in  that  land  he  lies. 

This  then  is  surely  true, 

That  those  who  're  really  wise 

Are  useful  while  alive, 

And  e'en  when  breath  has  left  them. 


PLATO.  233 

He  flourished  about  the  fifty-ninth  Olympiad.  There  is  a 
letter  of  his  extant  in  the  following  terms : — 

PHEEEOYDES   TO   THALES. 

May  you  die  happily  when  fate  overtakes  you.  Disease 
has  seized  upon  me  at  the  same  time  that  I  received  your 
letter.  I  am  all  over  lice,  and  suffering  likewise  under  a  low 
fever.  Accordingly,  I  have  charged  my  servants  to  convey 
this  book  of  mine  to  you,  after  they  have  buried  me.  And  do 
you,  if  you  think  fit,  after  consulting  with  the  other  wise  men, 
publish  it ;  but  if  you  do  not  approve  of  doing  so,  then  keep 
it  unpublished,  for  I  am  not  entirely  pleased  with  it  myself. 
The  subject  is  not  one  about  which  there  is  any  certain  knowl- 
edge, nor  do  I  undertake  to  say  that  I  have  arrived  at  the 
truth  ;  but  I  have  advanced  arguments,  from  which  any  one 
who  occupies  himself  with  speculations  on  the  divine  nature, 
may  make  a  selection ;  and  as  to  other  points,  he  must  exer- 
cise his  intellect,  for  I  speak  obscurely  throughout.  I,  myself, 
as  I  am  afflicted  more  severely  by  this  disease  every  day,  no 
longer  admit  any  physicians,  or  any  of  my  friends.  But  when 
they  stand  at  the  door,  and  ask  me  how  I  am,  I  put  out  my 
finger  to  them  through  the  opening  of  the  door,  and  show 
them  how  I  am  eaten  up  with  the  evil ;  and  I  desired 'them 
to  come  to-morrow  to  the  funeral  of  Pherecydes. 


PLATO. 

PLATO  was  the  son  of  Ariston  and  Perictione  or  Petone, 
and  a  citizen  of  Athens ;  and  his  mother  traced  her  family 
back  to  Solon ;  Plato  being  the  sixth  in  descent  from  Solon. 
And  Solon  traced  his  pedigree  up  to  Neleus  and  Neptune. 
They  say,  too,  that  on  the  father's  side  he  was  descended  from 
Codrns,  the  son  of  Melanthus,  and  they,  too,  are  said  by  Thra- 

20* 


234  PLATO. 

sylus  to  derive  their  origin  from  Neptune.  The  report  at 
Athens  was  that  Perictione  was  very  beautiful,  and  that  Ariston 
endeavored  to  violate  her  and  did  not  succeed  ;  and  that  he, 
after  he  had  desisted  from  his  violence,  saw  a  vision  of  Apollo 
in  a  dream,  in  consequence  of  which  he  abstained  from  ap- 
proaching his  wife  till  after  her  confinement. 

Plato  was  born,  as  Apollodorus  says  in  his  Chronicles,  in 
the  eighty-eighth  Olympiad,  on  the  seventh  day  of  the  month 
Thargelion,  on  which  day  the  people  of  Delos  say  that  Apollo 
also  was  born.  And  he  died,  as  Hermippus  says,  at  a  marriage 
feast,  in  the  first  year  of  the  hundred  and  eighth  Olympiad, 
having  lived  eighty-one  years.  But  Neanthes  says  that  he 
was  eighty-four  years  of  age  at  his  death. 

He  was  of  the  borough  of  Colytus,  as  Antileon  tells  us  in 
his  second  book  on  Dates.  And  he  was  born,  according  to 
some  writers,  in  ^Egina,  in  the  house  of  Phidiades,  the  son  of 
Thales.  His  father  had  been  sent  thither  with  several  others 
as  a  settler,  and  returned  again  to  Athens  when  the  settlers 
were  driven  out  by  the  Lacedemonians,  who  came  to  the  assist- 
ance of  the  ^ginetans.  And  he  served  the  office  of  choregus 
at  Athens,  when  Dion  was  at  the  expense  of  the  spectacle  ex- 
hibited, as  Theodorus  relates  in  the  eighth  book  of  his  Philo- 
sophical Conversations. 

He  was  taught  learning  in  the  school  of  Dionysius,  whom 
he  mentions  in  his  Rival  Lovers.  And  he  learnt  gymnastic 
exercises  under  the  wrestler  Ariston  of  Argos.  And  it  was 
by  him  that  he  had  the  name  of  Plato  given  to  him  instead 
of  his  original  name,  on  account  of  his  robust  figure,  as  he  had 
previously  been  called  Aristocles,  after  the  name  of  his  grand- 
father, as  Alexander  informs  us  in  his  Successions.  But  some 
say  that  he  derived  this  name  from  the  breadth  (Platutes, 
broad)  of  his  eloquence,  or  else  because  he  was  very  wide 
(Flatus,  width)  across  the  forehead,  as  Neanthes  affirms. 

It  is  also  said  that  he  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  paint- 


PLATO.  235 

ing,  and  that  he  "wrote  poems,  dithyrarnbics  at  first,  and  after- 
wards lyric  poems  and  tragedies. 

But  he  had  a  very  weak  voice,  they  say ;  and  the  same  fact 
is  stated  by  Timotheus  the  Athenian,  in  his  book  on  Lives. 
And  it  is  said  that  Socrates  in  a  dream  saw  a  cygnet  on  his 
knees,  who  immediately  put  forth  feathers,  and  flew  up  on 
high,  uttering  a  sweet  note,  and  that  the  next  day  Plato  came 
to  him,  and  that  he  pronounced  him  the  bird  which  he  had 
seen. 

He  used  to  philosophize  at  first  in  the  Academy,  and  after- 
wards in  the  garden  near  Colonus ;  and  subsequently,  though 
he  was  about  to  contend  for  the  prize  in  tragedy  in  the  theatre 
of  Bacchus,  after  he  had  heard  the  discourse  of  Socrates,  he 
learnt  his  poems,  saying  :  — 

Vulcan,  come  here ;  for  Plato  wants  your  aid. 

Having  fallen  sick  at  Eurytus,  he  was  cured  by  the  priests 
by  the  application  of  sea  water,  in  reference  to  which  he  said  : — 

The  sea  doth  wash  away  all  human  evils. 

And  he  said  too,  that,  according  to  Homer,  all  the  Egyptians 
were  physicians.  Plato  had  also  formed  the  idea  of  making 
the  acquaintance  of  the  Magi ;  but  he  abandoned  it  on  account 
of  the  wars  in  Asia. 

When  he  returned  to  Athens,  he  settled  in  the  Academy, 
and  that  is  a  suburban  place  of  exercise  planted  like  a  grove, 
so  named  from  an  ancient  hero  named  Hecademus. 

In  the  well-shaded  walks,  protected  well 
By  Godlike  Academus. 

Timon,  with  reference  to  Plato,  says : — 

A  man  did  lead  them  on,  a  strong  stout  man, 
A  honeyed  speaker,  sweet  as  melody 
Of  tuneful  grasshopper,  who,  seated  high 
On  Hecademus'  tree,  unwearied  sings. 

For  the  word  Academy  was  formerly  spelt  with  E.  He  was 
three  times  engaged  in  military  expeditions  ;  once  against 


236  PLATO. 

Tanagra;  the  second  time  against  Corinth,  ind  the  third 
time  at  Deliiim ;  and  that  in  the  battle  of  Delirni  he  obtained 
the  prize  of  pre-eminent  valor.  He  combined  the  principles 
of  the  schools  of  Heraclitus,  and  Pythagoras  and  Socrates  ;  for 
he  used  to  philosophize  on  those  things  which  are  the  subjects 
of  sensation,  according  to  the  system  of  Heraclitus ;  on  those 
with  which  intellect  is  conversant,  according  to  that  of  Pytha- 
goras ;  and  on  politics,  according  to  that  of  Socrates. 

Plato  made  three  voyages  to  Sicily,  first  of  all  for  the  pur- 
pose of  seeing  the  island  and  the  craters  of  volcanoes,  when 
Dionysius,  the  son  of  Hermocrates,  being  the  tyrant  of  Sicily, 
pressed  him  earnestly  to  come  and  see  him  ;  and  he,  convers- 
ing about  tyranny,  and  saying  that  that  is  not  the  best  govern- 
ment which  is  advantageous  for  one  individual  alone,  unless 
that  individual  is  pre-eminent  in  virtue,  had  a  quarrel  with 
Dionysius,  who  got  angry,  and  said,  "Your  words  are  those  of 
an  old  dotard :"  to  which  Plato  replied,  "  And  your  language 
is  that  of  a  tyrant."  And  on  this  the  tyrant  became  very  in- 
dignant, and  at  first  was  inclined  to  put  him  to  death  ;  but  af- 
terwards, being  appeased  by  Deni  and  Aristhrjsnes,  he  forebore 
to  do  that,  but  gave  him  to  Pollis,  the  Lacedssmonian,  who 
happened  to  have  come  to  him  on  an  embassy  just  at  that 
time,  to  sell  as  a  slave.  And  he  took  him  to  .ZEgina  and  sold 
him ;  and  Charmander,  the  son  of  Oharmandrides,  instituted 
a  capital  prosecution  against  him,  in  accordance  with  the  law 
which  was  in  force,  in  the  island  of  ^Egina,  that  the  first 
Athenian  who  landed  on  the  island  should  be  put  to  death 
without  a  trial ;  and  he  himself  was  the  person  who  had  ori- 
ginally proposed  that  law,  as  Pharorinus  says,  in  his  Universal 
History.  But  when  some  one  said,  though  he  said  it  only  in 
joke,  that  it  was  a  philosopher  who  had  landed,  the  people  re- 
leased him.  But  some  say  that  lie  was  brought  into  the  as- 
sembly and  watched;  and  that  he  did  not  say  a  word,  but 
stood  prepared  to  submit  to  whatever  might  befall  him ;  and 
that  they  .ietermiucd  not  to  put  him  to  death,  but  to  sell  him 


PLATO.  237 

ufter  the  fashion  of  prisoners  of  war.  And  it  happened  by 
chance  that  Anniceris,  the  Cyrenean,  was  present,  who  ran- 
somed him  for  twenty  niinse,  or,  as  others  say,  for  thirty,  and 
sent  him  to  Athens,  to  his  companions,  and  they  immediately 
sent  Anniceris  his  money  :  but  he  refused  to  receive  it,  saying 
that  they  were  not  the  only  people  in  the  world  who  were  en- 
titled to  have  a  regard  for  Plato.  Some  writers  again  say, 
that  it  was  Deni  who  sent  the  money,  and  that  he  did  not  re- 
fuse it,  but  bought  him  the  garden  in  the  Academy.  And  with 
respect  to  Pollis  it  is  said  that  he  was  defeated  by  Chabrias, 
and  that  he  was  afterwards  drowned  in  Helia,  in  consequence 
of  the  anger  of  the  deity  at  his  treatment  of  this  philosopher. 
And  this  is  the  story  told  by  Pharorinus  in  the  first  book  of 
his  Commentaries.  Dionysius,  however,  did  not  remain  quiet ; 
but  when  he  had  heard  what  had  happened  he  wrote  to  Plato 
not  to  speak  ill  of  him,  and  he  wrote  back  in  reply  that  he  had 
not  leisure  enough  to  think  at  all  of  Dionysius. 

But  he  went  a  second  time  to  Sicily  to  the  younger  Diony- 
sius, and  asked  him  for  some  land  and  for  some  men  whom  he 
might  make  live  according  to  his  own  theory  of  a  constitution. 
And  Dionysius  promised  to  give  him  some,  bnt  never  did  it. 
And  some  say  that  he  was  in  danger  himself,  having  been  sus- 
pected of  exciting  Dion  and  Thetasto  attempt  the  deliverance 
of  the  island ;  but  that  Archytas,  the  Pythagorean,  wrote  a 
letter  to  Dionysius,  and  begged  Plato  off  and  sent  him  back  safe 
to  Athens. 

In  his  own  country  he  did  not  meddle  with  state  affairs,  al- 
though lie  was  a  politician  as  far  as  his  writings  went.  And 
the  reason  was  that  the  people  were  accustomed  to  a  form  of 
government  and  constitution  different  from  what  he  approved 
of.  And  Pamphile,  in  the  twenty-fifth  book  of  his  Commen- 
taries, says  that  the  Arcadians  and  Thebans,  when  they  were 
founding  a  great  city,  appointed  him  its  law-giver ;  but  that 
he,  when  he  had  ascertained  that  they  would  not  consent  to 
an  equality  of  rights,  refused  to  go  thither. 


238  PLATO. 

It  is  said  also,  that  he  defended  Chabrias  the  general,  when 
he  was  impeached  in  a  capital  charge  ;  when  no  one  else  of  the 
citizens  would  undertake  the  task  5  and  as  he  was  going  up 
towards  the  Acropolis  with  his  client,  Crobylus  the  sycophant 
met  him  and  said,  "  Are  you  come  to  plead  for  another,  not 
knowing  that  the  hemlock  of  Socrates  is  waiting  also  for  you  ?" 
But  he  replied,  "  And  also,  when  I  fought  for  my  country  I 
encountered  dangers ;  and  now  too  I  encounter  them  in  the 
cause  of  justice  and  for  the  defence  of  a  friend," 

He  was  the  first  author  who  wrote  treatises  in  the  form  of 
dialogues,  as  Pharoriuus  tells  us  in  the  eight  book  of  his  Uni 
versal  History.  And  he  was  also  the  first  person  who  intro- 
duced the  analytical  method  of  investigation,  which  he  taught 
to  Leodamus  of  Thasos.  He  was  also  the  first  person  in  philos- 
ophy who  spoke  of  antipodes,  and  elements,  and  dialectics, 
and  actions  and  oblong  numbers,  and  plane  surfaces,  and  the 
providence  of  God.  He  was  likewise  the  first  of  the  philoso- 
phers who  contradicted  the  assertion  of  Lysias,  the  son  of  Ceph- 
alus,  setting  it  out  word  for  word  in  his  Phaedrus.  And  he 
was  also  the  first  person  who  examined  the  subject  of  grammat- 
ical knowledge  scientifically.  And  as  he  argued  against 
almost  every  one  who  had  lived  before  his  time,  it  is  often 
asked  why  he  has  never  mentioned  Democritus. 

Neanthes  of  Oyzicus  says,  that  when  he  came  to  the  Olym- 
pic games  all  the  Greeks  who  were  present  turned  to  look  at 
him ;  and  that  it  was  on  that  occasion  that  he  held  a  conver- 
sation with  Dion,  who  was  on  the  point  of  attacking  Dionysius. 
Moreover,  in  the  first  book  of  the  Commentaries  of  Pharori- 
nus,  it  is  related  that  Mithridates,  the  Persian,  erected  a  statue 
of  Plato  in  the  Academy,  and  put  on  it  this  inscription  :  "  Mith- 
ridates, the  son  of  Rhodobates,  a  Persian,  consecrated  an 
image  of  Plato  to  the  Muses,  which  was  made  by  Silanion." 

Heraclides  says,  that  even  while  a  young  man,  he  was  so 
modest  and  well  regulated,  that  he  was  never  once  seen  to 
laugh  excessively.  But  though  he  was  of  such  a  grave  charac- 


PLATO.  239 

ter  himself,  be  was  nevertheless  ridiculed  by  the  comic  poet* 
Accordingly,  Theopoinpus,  in  his  Pleasure-seeker,  says: — 

For  one  thing  is  no  longer  only  one. 

But  two  things  now  are  scarcely  one  ;  as  says 

The  solemn  Plato. 

And  Anaxandrides  in  his  Theseus,  says: — • 

When  he  ate  olives  like  our  worthy  Plato. 

And  Timon  speaks  of  him  in  this   way,  punning  on  his 
name : — 

As  Plato  placed  strange  platitudes  on  paper. 

Alexis  says  in  his  Hesopis  : — 

You  've  come  in  time :  since  I'  ve  been  doubting  long, 
And  walking  up  and  down  some  time,  like  Plato  ; 
And  yet  have  hit  upon  no  crafty  plan, 
But  only  tir'd  my  legs. 

And  in  his  Analion,  he  says  : — 

You  speak  of  what  you  do  not  understand, 
Running  about  like  Plato  :  hoping  thus, 
To  learn  the  nature  of  saltpetre  and  onions. 

Amphis  says  in  his  Ainphicrates  : — 

But  what  the  good  is,  which  you  hope  to  get 
By  means  of  her,  my  master,  I  no  more 
Can  form  a  notion  of,  than  of  the  good 
Of  Plato. 

And  in  his  Dexidemus  he  speaks  thus  :• — 

O  Plato !  how  your  learning  is  confined 

To  gloomy  looks,  and  wrinkling  up  your  brows 

Like  any  cockle. 

Cratinas,  in  his  Pseudripobolimseus,  says  : — 

You  clearly  are  a  man,  endued  with  sense, 
And  so,  as  Plato  says,  I  do  not  know  ; 
But  I  suspect 

Alexis,  in  his  Olympiodorus,  speaks  thus  : — 

My  mortal  body  became  dry  and  withered : 
But  my  immortal  part  rose  to  the  sky. 
la  not  this  Plato's  doctrine  ? 


240  PLATO. 

And  in  his  Parasite  he  says  : — 

Or  to  converse  alone,  like  Plato. 

Anaxilas  also  laughs  at  him  in  his  Botrylion,  and  Circe, 
and  his  Rich  Women. 

Aristippus,  in  the  fourth  book  of  his  treatise  upon  Ancient 
Luxury,  says  that  he  was  much  attached  to  a  youth  of  the 
name  of  Aster,  who  used  to  study  astronomy  with  him ;  and 
also  to  Dion,  whom  we  have  already  mentioned.  And  some 
say  that  he  was  also  attached  to  Phaadrus,  and  that  the  follow- 
ing epigrams  which  he  wrote  upon  them  are  evidences  of  the 
love  he  felt  for  them  :— 

My  Aster,*  you  're  gazing  on  the  stars  (asteres), 
Would  that  1  were  the  heavens,  that  so  I  might 
Gaze  in  return  with  many  eyes  on  thee. 

Another  of  his  epigrams  is  : — 

Aster,  you  while  among  the  living  shone, 

The  morning  star.    But  now  that  you  are  dead, 

You  beam  like  Hesperus  in  the  shades  below. 

And  he  wrote  thus  on  Dion  : — 

Once,  at  their  birth,  the  Fates  did  destine  tears 
To  be  the  lot  of  all  the  Trojan  women, 
And  Hecuba,  their  Queen — to  you,  O  Dion, 
As  the  deserved  reward  for  glorious  deeds, 
They  gave  extensive  and  illustrious  hopes. 
And  now  you  lie  beneath  your  native  soil ; 
Honored  by  all  your  countrymen,  O  Dion, 
\nd  loved  by  me  with  ardent,  lasting  love. 

And  they  say  that  this  epigram  is  inscribed  upon  his  tomb 
at  Syracuse.  They  say,  also,  that  he  was  in  love  with  Alexis, 
and  with  Phaodrus,  as  I  have  already  mentioned,  and  that  he 
wrote  an  epigram  on  them  both,  which  runs  thus  : — 

Now  when  Alexis  is  no  longer  aught, 
Say  only  bow  beloved,  how  fair  he  was, 
And  every  one  does  turn  his  eyes  at  once. 
Why,  my  mind,  do  you  show  the  dogs  a  bone? 
You  're  but  preparing  trouble  for  yourself: 
Have  we  not  also  lost  the  lovely  PhaedrusI 

*  Aster  signifies  star. 


PLATO.  241 

There  is  also  a  tradition  that  he  had  a  mistress  named  Ar- 
chianassa,  on  whom  he  wrote  the  following  lines  : — 

I  have  a  mistress  fair  from  Colophon, 
Archianassa,  on  whose  very  wrinkles 
Sits  genial  love :  hard  must  have  been  the  fate 
Of  him  who  met  her  earliest  blaze  of  beauty, 
Surely  he  must  have  been  completely  scorched. 

He  also  wrote  this  epigram  on  Agathon  : — 

While  kissing  Agathon,  my  soul  did  rise, 
And  hover'd  o'er  my  lips ;  wishing  perchance, 
O'er  anxious  that  it  was,  to  migrate  to  him. 

Another  of  his  epigrams  is : — • 

I  throw  this  apple  to  you.    And  if  you 
Love  me  who  love  you  so,  receive  it  gladly, 
And  let  me  taste  your  lovely  virgin  charms. 
Or  if  that  may  not  be,  still  take  the  fruit, 
And  in  your  bosom  cherish  it,  and  learn 
How  fleeting  is  all  gracefulness  and  beauty. 

And  another : — 

I  am  an  apple,  and  am  thrown  to  you, 

By  one  who  loves  you  :  but  consent,  Xanthippe ; 

For  you  and  I  shall  both  with  time  decay. 

They  also  attribute  to  him  the  following  epigram  on  the 
Eretrians  who  had  been  surprised  in  an  ambuscade  : — 

We  were  Eretriaus,  of  Eubasan  race  ? 
And  now  we  lie  near  Susa,  here  entomb'd, 
Far  from  my  native  land. 

And  this  one  also  : — 

Thus  Venus  to  the  muses  spoke : 
Damsels  submit  to  Venus'  yoke, 

Or  dread  my  Cupid's  arms. 
Those  threats,  the  Virgins  nine  replied, 
May  weigh  with  Mars,  but  we  deride 

Love's  wrongs,  or  darts,  or  charms. 

Another  is  :- 

A  certain  person  found  some  gold, 
Carried  it  off,  and  in  its  stead 
Left  a  strong  halter  neatly  roll'd. 

21 


242  PLATO, 

The  owner  found  bis  treasure  fled ; 

And  powerless  to  endure  his  fortune  s  wreck, 

Fitted  the  halter  to  his  hapless  neck. 

It  is  said  also,  that  Antisthenes,  being  about  to  recite  some 
tiling  that  he  had  written,  invited  him  to  be  present ;  and  tha\ 
Plato  having  asked  what  he  was  going  to  recite,  he  said  that 
it  was  an  essay  on  the  impropriety  of  contradicting.  "  How 
then,"  said  Plato,  "  can  you  write  on  this  subject  ?"  and  then 
he  showed  him  that  he  was  arguing  in  a  circle.  But  Antis- 
thenes was  annoyed,  and  composed  a  dialogue  against  Plato, 
which  he  entitled  Sothon ;  after  which  they  were  always 
enemies  to  one  another ;  and  they  say  that  Socrates  having 
heard  Plato  read  the  Lysis,  said,  "  O  Hercules  !  what  a  number 
of  lies  the  young  man  has  told  about  me."  For  he  had  set 
down  a  great  many  things  as  sayings  of  Socrates  which  he 
never  said. 

Pharorinus  says,  when  Plato  read  his  treatise  on  the  Soul, 
Aristotle  was  the  only  person  who  sat  it  out,  and  that  all  the 
rest  rose  up  and  went  away.  And  some  say  that  Philip  the 
Opuntian  copied  out  the  whole  of  his  books  upon  Laws,  which 
were  written  on  waxen  tablets  only, 

A  story  is  told,  that  Plato,  having  seen  a  man  playing  at 
dice,  reproached  him  for  it,  and  that  he  said  he  was  playing 
for  a  trifle:  uBut  the  habit,"  rejoined  Plato,  "  is  not  a  trifle." 
On  one  occasion  he  was  asked  whether  there  would  be  any 
monument  of  him,  as  of  his  predecessors  in  philosophy  ?  and  he 
answered,  "  A  man  must  first  make  a  name,  and  the  monu- 
ment will  follow."  Once,  when  Xenocrates  came  into  his 
house,  he  desired  him  to  scourge  one  of  his  slaves  for  him,  for 
that  he  himself  could  not  do  it  because  he  was  in  a  passion ; 
and  that  at  another  time  he  said  to  one  of  his  slaves,  "  I  should 
beat  you  if  I  were  not  in  a  passion."  Having  got  on  horse- 
back he  dismounted  again  immediately,  saying  that  he  was 
afraid  that  he  should  be  infected  with  horse-pride.  .  He  used 
to  advise  people  who  got  drunk  to  look  in  the  glass,  and  then 


PLATO.  243 

they  would  abandon  their  unseemly  habit ;  and  he  srud  it  was 
never  decorous  to  drink  to  the  degree  of  drunkennes- ,  except 
at  the  festivals  of  the  God  who  had  given  men  wine.  He  also 
disapproved  of  much  sleeping:  accordingly,  in  his  Laws  he 
says,  "  No  one  while  sleeping  is  good  for  anything."  Another 
saying  of  his  was,  "  That  the  pleasantest  of  all  things  to  hear 
was  the  truth  ;"  but  others  report  this  saying  thus,  "  That  the 
sweetest  of  all  things  was  to  speak  truth."  And  of  truth  he 
speaks  thus  in  his  Laws :  "  Truth,  my  friend,  is  a  beautiful  and 
a  durable  thing ;  but  it  is  not  easy  to  persuade  men  of  this  fact." 

He  used  also  to  wish  to  leave  a  memorial  of  himself  behind, 
either  in  the  hearts  of  his  friends,  or  in  his  books.  He  also 
used  to  travel  a  good  deal,  as  some  authors  inform  us. 

He  died  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  the  reign  of  Philip  of 
Hacedon  ;  and  Theopompus  relates  that  Philip  on  one  occasion 
reproached  him.  But  Mysonianus,  in  his  Resemblances,  says- 
that  Philo  mentions  some  proverbs  that  were  in  circulation 
about  Plato's  lice ;  implying  that  he  had  died  of  that  disease. 

He  was  buried  in  the  Academy,  where  he  spent  the  greater 
part  of  his  time  in  the  practice  of  philosophy,  from  which  his 
was  called  the  Academic  school;  and  his  funeral  was  attended 
by  all  the  pupils  of  that  sect.  He  made  his  will  in  the  follow- 
ing terms : — "  Plato  left  these  things,  and  has  bequeathed 
them  as  follows: — The  farm  in  the  district  of  the  Hephaestia- 
des,  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  road  from  the  temple  of  the 
Cephiciades,  and  on  the  south  by  the  temple  of  Hercules, 
which  is  in  the  district  of  the  Hephasstiades ;  and  on  the  east 
by  the  estate  of  Archestratus  the  Phreauian,  and  on  the  west 
by  the  farm  of  Philip  the  Challidian,  shall  be  incapable  of 
being  sold  or  alienated,  but  shall  belong  to  my  son  Ademantua 
as  far  as  possible.  And  so  likewise  shall  my  farm  in  the  dis- 
trict of  the  Eiresides,  which  I  bought  of  Callimachus,  which 
is  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  property  of  Eurymedon  the 
Myrrhinusian,  on  the  south  by  that  of  Demostratus  of  Xypeta, 
on  the  east  by  that  of  Eurymedon  the  Myrrhinusian,  and  on 


244  PLATO. 

the  west  by  the  Cephisus ; — I  also  leave  him  three  niinaa  of 
silver,  a  silver  goblet  weighing  a  hundred  and  sixty-five 
drachms,  a  cup  weighing  forty-five  drachms,  a  golden  ring  and 
a  golden  ear-ring,  weighing  together  four  drachms  and  three 
obols.  Euclides  the  stone-cutter  owes  me  three  rninae.  I  leave 
Diana  her  liberty.  My  slaves  Sychon,  Biotas,  Apolloniades, 
and  Dionysius,  I  bequeath  to  my  son ;  and  I  also  give  him  all 
my  furniture,  of  which  Demetrius  has  a  catalogue.  I  owe  no 
one  anything.  My  executors  shall  be  Tozthenes,  Speusippus, 
Demetrius,  Hegias,  Eurymedon,  Callimachus,  and  Thrasippus." 
This  was  his  will.  And  on  his  tomb  the  following  epigrams 
were  inscribed.  First  of  all: — 

Here,  first  of  all  men  for  pure  justice  famed, 

And  moral  virtue,  Aristocles  lies ; 
And  if  there  e'er  has  lived  one  truly  wise, 

This  man  was  wiser  still ;  too  great  for  envy. 

A  second  is : — 

Here  in  her  bosom  does  the  tender  earth 
Embrace  great  Plato's  corpse.    His  soul  aloft 

Has  ta'en  its  place  among  the  immortal  Gods. 
Ariston's  glorious  son — whom  all  good  men, 

Though  in  far  countries,  held  in  love  and  honor, 
Remembering  his  pure  and  god-like  life. 

"We  add  the  following  from  Brucker  : 

Plato  gave  early  indications  of  an  extensive  and  original 
genius.  While  he  was  young,  he  was  instructed  in  the  rudi- 
ments of  letters  by  the  grammarian  Dionysius,  and  trained  in 
athletic  exercises  by  Aristo  of  Argos.  He  applied,  with  great 
diligence,  to  the  study  and  practice  of  the  arts  of  painting 
and  poetry.  In  the  latter  he  made  such  proficiency  as  to 
produce  an  epic  poem,  which,  however,  on  comparing  it  with 
Homer,  he  committed  to  the  flames.  At  the  age  of  twenty 
years  he  composed  a  dramatic  piece,  which  he  gave  to  the 
performers,  to  be  represented  upon  the  stage ;  but  the  day 
before  the  intended  exhibition,  happening  to  attend  upon  a 


PLATO.  245 

discourse  of  Socrates,  he  was  captivated  by  his  eloquence, 
and  from  that  moment  determined  to  relinquish  all  preten- 
sions to  poetical  distinction,  and  to  turn  his  ambition  into 
the  channel  of  philosophy.  He  forsook  the  muses,  burned 
his  poems,  and  applied  himself  wholly  to  the  study  of  wis- 
dom. 

It  is  probable  that  Plato  received  the  first  tincture  of  phi- 
losophy from  Cratylus  and  Hermogenes,  who  taught  the  sys- 
tems of  Heraclitus  and  Parmenides.  When  he  was  twenty 
years  old  he  became  a  stated  disciple  of  Socrates,  and  re- 
mained with  him  in  that  relation  eight  years.  During  this 
period  he  frequently  displeased  the  followers  of  Socrates,  and 
sometimes  gave  Socrates  himself  occasions  of  complaint,  by 
mixing  foreign  tenets  with  those  of  his  master,  and  grafting 
upon  the  Socratic  system  opinions  which  were  taken  from 
some  other  stock.  Plato,  nevertheless,  retained  a  zealous  at- 
tachment to  Socrates.  When  that  great  and  good  man  was 
summoned  before  the  senate,  Plato,  as  we  have  seen,  under- 
took to  plead  his  cause,  and  began  a  speech  in  his  defence ; 
but  the  partiality  and  violence  of  the  judges  would  not  per- 
mit him  to  proceed.  After  the  condemnation,  he  presented ' 
his  master  with  money  sufficient  to  redeem  his  life,  which, 
however,  Socrates  refused  to  accept.  During  his  imprison- 
ment, Plato  attended  him,  and  was  present  at  a  conversation 
which  he  held  with  his  friends  concerning  the  immortality  of 
the  soul,  the  substance  of  which  he  afterwards  committed  to 
writing  in  the  beautiful  dialogue  entitled  Pheedo,  not,  how- 
ever, without  interweaving  his  own  opinions  and  language. 
Upon  the  death  of  his  master,  he  withdrew,  with  several 
other  friends  of  Socrates,  to  Megara,  where  they  were  hospit- 
ably entertained  by  Euclid,  and  remained  till  the  ferment  at 
Athens  subsided.  Under  Euclid  he  studied  the  art  of  rea- 
soning, and  probably  increased  his  fondness  for  disputation. 

Desirous  of  making  himself  master  of  all  the  wisdom  and 
learning  whicli   the  age  could  furnish,  Plato  travelled  into 

21* 


246  PLATO. 

every  country  which  was  so  far  enlightened  as  to  promise 
him  any  recompense  for  his  labor.  That  he  might  travel 
with  safety,  he  assumed  the  character  of  a  merchant,  and  as 
a  seller  of  oil  passed  through  the  whole  kingdom  of  Arta- 
xerxes  Mnemon.  "Wherever  he  came,  he  obtained  informa- 
tion from  the  Egyptian  priests  concerning  their  astronomical 
observations  and  calculations.  "  Whilst  studious  youth,"  (says 
Valerius  Maximus,  rather  indeed  in  the  style  of  oratory  than 
history,  for  Plato  had  not  instituted  his  school  at  Athens) 
"were  crowding  to  Athens  from  every  quarter  in  search  of 
Plato  for  their  master,  that  philosopher  was  wandering  along 
the  winding  banks  of  the  Nile,  or  the  vast  plains  of  a  barbar- 
ous country,  himself  a  disciple  to  the  old  men  of  Egypt." 

It  has  been  asserted,  that  it  was  in  Egypt  that  Plato  ac- 
quired his  opinions  concerning  the  origin  of  the  world,  and 
learnt  the  doctrines  of  transmigration,  and  the  immortality  of 
the  soul  ;  but  it  is  more  probable  that  he  learned  the  latter 
doctrine  from  Socrates,  and  the  former  from  Pythagoras.  It 
is  not  likely  that  Plato,  in  the  habit  of  a  merchant,  could  have 
gained  access  to  the  sacred  mysteries  of  Egypt ;  for  we  see, 
in  the  case  of  Pythagoras,  that  the  Egyptian  priests  were  so 
unwilling  to  communicate  their  secrets  to  strangers,  that  even 
a  royal  mandate  was  scarcely  sufficient,  in  a  single  instance, 
to  procure  this  indulgence. 

From  the  particulars  which  we  have  related  concerning 
the  manner  in  which  Plato  acquired  his  knowledge,  we  are 
enabled  to  ascertain  with  some  degree  of  precision,  the 
sources  of  his  philosophy.  His  dialectics  he  borrowed  from 
Euclid  of  Megara :  the  principles  of  natural  philosophy  he 
learned  in  the  Eleatic  school  from  Hermogenes  and  Cratylus ; 
and  combining  these  with  the  Pythagorean  doctrine  of  natu- 
ral causes,  he  framed  from  both  his  system  of  metaphysics. 
Mathematics  and  astronomy  he  was  taught  in  the  Cyrenaic 
school,  and  by  the  Egyptian  priests.  From  Socrates  he  im- 
bibed the  pure  principles  of  moral  and  political  wisdom  ;  but 


PLATO.  247 

he  afterwards  obscured  their  simplicity  by  Pythagorean  spec- 
ulations. 

Returning  home  richly  stored  with  knowledge  of  various 
kinds,  Plato  settled  in  Athens,  and  executed  the  design, 
which  he  had  doubtless  long  had  in  contemplation,  of  form- 
ing a  new  school  for  the  instruction  of  youth  in  the  princi- 
ples of  philosophy.  The  place  which  he  made  choice  of  for 
this  purpose  was  a  public  grove  called  the  Academy,  from. 
Academus,  who  left  it  to  the  citizens  for  the  purpose  of  gym- 
nastic exercises.  Adorned  with  statues,  temples,  and  sepul- 
chres, surrounded  with  high  trees,  and  intersected  by  a  gen- 
tle stream,  it  afforded  a  delightful  retreat  for  philosophy  and 
the  muses.  Of  this  retreat  Horace  speaks : 

'Midst  Academic  groves  to  search  for  truth. 

How  much  Plato  valued  mathematical  studies,  and  how 
necessary  a  preparation  he  thought  them  for  higher  specula- 
tions, appears  from  the  inscription  which  he  placed  over  the 
door  of  his  school :  "  Let  no  one,  who  is  unacquainted  with 
geometry,  enter  here." 

This  new  school  soon  became  famous,  and  its  master  was 
ranked  among  the  most  eminent  philosophers.  His  travels 
into  distant  countries,  where  learning  and  wisdom  flourished, 
gave  him  celebrity  among  his  brethren  of  the  Socratic  sect. 
Not  only  did  young  men  crowd  to  his  school  from,  every 
quarter,  but  people  of  the  first  distinction,  in  every  depart- 
ment, frequented  the  Academy.  Even  females,  disguised  in 
men's  clothes,  often  attended  his  lectures.  Among  the  illus- 
trious names  which  appear  in  the  catalogue  of  his  followers 
are  Dion,  the  Syracusan  prince,  and  the  orators  Hyperides, 
Lycurgus,  Demosthenes,  and  Isocrates. 

Such  distinguished  reputation  naturally  produced  among 
the  companions  of  Plato,  formerly  the  disciples  of  Socrates, 
a  spirit  of  emulation,  which  soon  degenerated  into  envy,  and 
loaded  him  with  detraction  and  obloquy.  It  can  only  be  as- 


248  PLATO. 

cribed  to  mutual  ^ealousy,  that  Xenophon  and  Plato,  though 
they  relate  the  discourses  of  their  common  master,  studiously 
avoid  mentioning  one  another.  Diogenes  the  Cynic  ridiculed 
Plato's  doctrine  of  ideas,  and  other  abstract  speculations.  In 
-the  midst  of  these  private  censures,  however,  the  public  fame 
of  Plato  daily  increased?  His  political  wisdom  was  in  such 
high  estimation,  that  several -States  solicited  his  assistance  in 
new-modelling  their  respective  forms  of  government.  Appli- 
cations of  this  kind  from  the  Arcadians,  and  from  the  The- 
bans,  he  rejected,  because  they  refused  to  adopt  the  plan  of  his 
republic,  which  required  an  equal  distribution  of  property. 
He  gave  his  advice  in  the  affairs  of  Elis,  and  other  Grecian 
States,  and  furnished  a  code  of  laws  for  Syracuse.  Plato  was 
in  high  esteem  with  several  princes,  particularly  Archelaus, 
king  of  Macedon,  and  Dionysius,  tyrant  of  Sicily.  At  three 
different  periods  he  visited  the  court  of  this  latter  prince,  and 
made  several  bold,  but  unsuccessful  attempts  to  subdue  his 
haughty  and  tyrannical  spirit.  A  brief  relation  of  the  par- 
ticulars of  these  visits  to  Sicily  may  serve  to  cast  some  light 
upon  the  character  of  our  philosopher. 

The  professed  object  of  Plato's  first  visit  to  Sicily,  which  9 
happened  in  the  fortieth  year  of  his  age,  during  the  reign  of 
the  elder  Dionysius,  the  son  of  Hermocrates,  was,  to  take  a 
survey  of  the  island,  and  particularly  to  observe  the  wonders 
of  Mount  .ZEtna.  Whilst  he  was  resident  at  Syracuse,  he  was 
employed  in  the  instruction  of  Dion,  the  king's  brother-in- 
law,  who  possessed  excellent  abilities,  though  hitherto  re- 
strained by  the  terrors  of  a  tyrannical  government,  and  relaxed 
by  the  luxuries  of  a  licentious  court.  Disgusted  by  the  de- 
bauched manners  of  the  Syracusans,  he  endeavored  to  rescue 
his  pupil  from  the  general  depravity.  Nor  did  Dion  disap- 
point his  preceptor's  expectations.  No  sooner  had  he  received 
a  taste  of  that  philosophy  which  leads  to  virtue  than  he  was 
fired  with  an  ardent  love  of  wisdom.  Entertaining  a  hope 
that  philosophy  might  produce  the  same  effect  upon  Dionysius, 


PLATO.  249 

he  took  great  pains  to  procure  an  interview  between  Plato 
and  the  tyrant.  In  the  course  of  the  conference,  whilst  Plato 
was  discoursing  on  the  security  and  happiness  of  virtue,  and 
the  miseries  attending  injustice  and  oppression, '  Dionysius, 
perceiving  that  the  philosopher's  discourse  was  levelled  against, 
the  vices  and  cruelties  of  .his  reign,  dismissed  him  with  high 
displeasure  from  his  presence,  and  conceived  a  design  against 
his  life.  It  was  not  without  great  difficulty  that  Plato,  by  the 
assistance  of  Dion,  made  his  escape.  A  vessel  which  had 
brought  over  Pollis,  a  delegate  from  Sparta,  was  fortunately 
at  that  time  returning  to  Greece.  Dion  engaged  Pollis  tox 
take  the  charge  of  the  philosopher,  and  land  him  safely  in  his 
native  country;  but  Dionysius  discovered  the  design,  and 'ob- 
tained a  promise  from  Pollis  that  he  would  either  put  him  to 
death,  or  sell  him  as  a  slave  upon  the  passage.  Pollis,  accord- 
ingly, sold  him  in  the  island  of  ^Egina,  the  inhabitants  of 
which  were  then  at  war  with  the  Athenians.  Plato  could 
not  long  remain  unnoticed  :  Auicerris,  a  Cyrenaic  philosopher, 
who  happened  to  be  at  that  time  in  the  island,  discovered  the 
stranger,  and  thought  himself  happy  in  an  opportunity  of 
showing  his  respect  for  so  illustrious  a  philosopher ;  he 
purchased  his  freedom  for  thirty  mince,  and  sent  him  home  to 
Athens.  Kepayment  being  afterwards  offered  to  Anicerris 
by  Plato's  relations,  he  refused  the  money,  saying,  with  that 
generous  spirit  which  true  philosophy  always  inspires,  that  he 
saw  no  reason  why  the  relations  of  Plato  should  engross  to 
themselves  the  honor  of  serving  him. 

After  a  short  interval,  Dionysius  repented  of  his  ill-placed 
resentment,  and  wrote  to  Plato,  earnestly  requesting  him  to 
repair  his  credit  by  returning  to  Syracuse  ;  to  which  Plato  gave 
this  high-spirited  answer,  that  philosophy  would  not  allow 
him  leisure  to  think  of  Dionysius.  Dion,  who,  through  the  in- 
fluence of  Plato's  instructions,  had  become  a  determined  vota- 
ry of  virtue,  was  earnestly  desirous  of  inspiring  others  with 
the  same  sentiments.  In  hope  of  making  an  advantageous 


250  PLATO. 

impression  upon  the  mind  of  the  younger  Dionysius,  he  took 
every  occasion  of  making  him  acquainted  with  the  doctrines  and 
precepts  of  his  master.  The  effect  was  such  as  Dion  wished — 
the  youth  soon  expressed  an  earnest  desire  to  became  acquaint- 
ed with  the  philosopher.  Letters  were  immediately  despatched 
to  Plato,  from  the  tyrant,  from  Dion,  and  from  several  followers 
of  Pythagoras,  who  were  at  that  time  resident  in  Sicily,  impor- 
tuning him  to  return  to  Syracuse,  and  take  upon  him  the  educa- 
cation  of  the  young  prince.  After  some  hesitation,  apprehend- 
ing lest  a  refusal  might  seem  to  imply  an  unworthy  neglect 
of  the  interest  of  philosophy,  and  entertaining  some  hope, 
that  hy  cleansing  the  fountain  of  public  ^manners  in  Sicily,  he 
should  be  able  to  purify  the  stream,  he  consented.  It  has  also 
been  said,  and  not  without  plausibility,  that  he  was  induced 
to  undertake  this  second  journey  to  S}Tracuse  by  a  promise, 
on  the  part  of  Dionysius,  that  he  would  adopt  the  philosopher's 
plan  of  government.  In  the  meantime,  the  enemies  of  Dion 
prevailed  upon  Dionysius  to  recall  from  exile  Philistus,  a  man 
of  tyrannical  principles  and  spirit,  from  whom  they  hoped  for 
a  powerful  opposition  to  the  doctrine  and  the  measures  of 
Plato.  The  philosopher  was  conducted  to  Syracuse  with  pub- 
lic honors ;  the  king  himself  received  him  in  his  chariot,  and 
sacrifices  were  offered  in  congratulation  of  his  arrival.  New 
regulations  were  immediately  introduced ;  the  licentiousness 
of  the  court  was  restrained  ;  moderation  reigned  in  all  public 
festivals ;  the  king  assumed  an  air  of  benignity ;  philosophy 
was  studied  by  his  courtiers ;  and  every  good  man  assured 
himself  of  a  happy  revolution  in  the  state  of  public  manners. 
But  Philistus  and  his  adherents,  envious  of  the  philosopher's 
increasing  influence  with  the  tyrant,  soon  found  means  to  re- 
kindle his  jealousy.  Through  their  intrigues,  Dion  became 
so  obnoxious  to  Dionysius,  that  he  ordered  him  to  be  im- 
prisoned, and  afterwards  banished  him  into  Italy.  Plato,  and 
the  friends  of  Dion,  were  exceedingly  alarmed  at  this  measure, 
and  began  to  be  apprehensive  for  their  own  safety.  Dionysius, 


PLATO.  251 

however,  continued  to  treat  them  courteously.  Under  the 
pretence  of  friendship,  he  allotted  Plato  an  apartment  in  his 
palace,  but  at  the  same  time  placed  a  secret  guard  about  him, 
that  no  one  might  visit  him  without  his  knowledge.  At 
length,  upon  the  commencement  of  a  war,  Dionysius  sent 
Plato  back  into  his  own  country,  but  not  without  a  promise 
that  he  would  recall  both  him  and  Dion  upon  the  return  of  peace. 

Dion,  who  now  resided  in  Athens,  diligently  attended  upon 
the  lectures  of  his  master,  and  so  far  profited  by  his  moral  pre- 
cepts, as  to  lay  aside  everything  effeminate  and  luxurious  in 
his  manner  of  living.  The  tyrant,  in  the  meantime,  that  he 
might,  if  possible,  obliterate  the  ignominy  which  he  had 
brought  upon  himself  by  the  banishment  of  Plato,  invited 
philosophers  from  every  quarter  to  his  court.  Their  discourses 
recalled  his  attention  to  philosophy,  and  he  again  became  ex- 
ceedingly desirous  of  Plato's  return.  The  philosopher  received 
his  solicitations  with  coolness,  pleaded  in  excuse  his  advanced 
age,  and  reminded  the  tyrant  of  the  violation  of  his  promise, 
that  on  the  return  of  peace  Dion  should  be  restored.  It  was 
not  till  the  request  of  Dionysius  was  seconded  by  the  intreaties 
of  the  wife  and  sister  of  Dion,  and  by  the  importunities  of 
Archytas  of  Tarentum,  and  other  Pythagorean  philosophers,  to 
whom  the  tyrant  had  pledged  himself  for  the  performance  of 
his  promises,  that  he  could  be  prevailed  upon  to  return. 

When  Plato  arrived  the  third  time  at  Syracuse,  the  king 
met  him  in  a  magnificent  chariot,  and  conducted  him  to  his 
palace.  The  Sicilians,  too,  whose  hatred  of  Philistus  inclined 
them  to  favor  the  party  of  Dion,  rejoiced  in  his  return,  for  they 
hoped  that  the  wisdom  of  Plato  would  at  length  triumph  over 
the  tyrannical  spirit  of  the  prince.  Dionysius  seemed  wholly 
divested  of  his  former  resentments,  listened  with  apparent 
pleasure  to  the  philosopher's  doctrine,  and,  among  other  ex- 
pressions of  regard,  presented  him  with  eighty  talents  of  gold. 
In  the  midst  of  a  numerous  train  of  philosophers,  Plato  now 
possessed  the  chief  influence  and  authority  in  the  court  of  Syr- 

20* 


252  PLATO. 

acuse.  Whilst  Aristippus  was  enjoying  himself  in  splendid 
luxury,  whilst  Diogenes  was  freely  indulging  his  acrimonious 
humor,  and  whilst  /Eschines  was  gratifying  his  thirst  after 
riches,  Plato  supported  the  credit  of  philosophy  with  an  air 
of  dignity,  which  his  friends  regarded  as  an  indication  of  su- 
perior wisdom,  but  which  his  enemies  imputed  to  pride.  After 
all,  it  was  not  in  the  power  of  Plato  to  prevail  upon  Dionysius 
to  adopt  his  system  of  policy,  or  to  recall  Dion  from  his  exile. 
Mutual  distrust,  after  a  short  interval,  arose  between  the  ty- 
rant and  the  philosopher ;  each  suspected  the  other  of  evil  de- 
signs, and  each  endeavored  to  conceal  his'suspicion  under  the 
disguise  of  respect.  Dionysius  attempted  to  impose  upon  Plato 
by  condescending  attentions,  and  Plato  to  deceive  Dionysius 
by  an  appearance  of  confidence.  At  length  the  philosopher 
became  so  much  dissatisfied  with  his  situation,  that  he  earnest- 
ly requested  permission  to  return  to  Greece. 

After  some  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  tyrant,  permission 
was  granted  and  a  vessel  of  convoy  was  provided.  But  before 
the  ship  set  sail  Dionysius  repented,  and  detained  Plato  in 
Syracuse  against  his  inclination.  From  this  time  the  freedom 
of  the  philosopher's  complaints  and  reproofs  became  offensive 
to  the  tyrant,  and  Dionysius  dismissed  Plato  from  his  court, 
and  put  him  under  a  guard  of  soldiers,  whom  false  rumors  had 
incensed  against  him.  His  Pythagorean  friends  at  Tarentum, 
being  informed  of  his  dangerous  situation,  immediately  de- 
spatched an  embassy  to  Dionysius,  demanding  an  instant  com- 
pletion of  his  promise  to  Archytas.  The  tyrant,  not  daring  to 
refuse  this  demand,  but  at  the  same  time  desirous  to  save  him- 
self, as  much  as  possible,  from  the  disgrace  of  having  banished 
from  his  court  the  first  philosopher  of  the  age,  gave  Plato 
a  magnificent  entertainment,  and  sent  him  away  loaded  with 
rich  presents.  On  his  way  to  Athens,  passing  through  Elis 
during  the  celebration  of  the  Olympic  games,  he  was  present 
at  this  general  assembly  of  the  Greeks,  and  engaged  universal 
attention. 


PLATO.  253 

From  this  narrative  it  appears,  that  if  Plato  visited  the 
courts  of  princes,  it  was  chiefly  from  the  hope  of  seeing  his 
ideal  plan  of  a  republic  realized  ;  and  that  his  talents  and  at- 
tainments rather  qualified  him  to  shine  in  the  academy  than 
in  the  council  or  the  senate. 

Plato,  now  restored  to  his  country  and  his  school,  devoted 
himself  to  science,  and  spent  the  last  years  of  a  long  life  in 
the  instruction  of  youth.  Having  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  an 
athletic  constitution,  and  lived  all  his  days  temperately,  he  ar- 
rived at  the  eighty-first,  or  according  to  some  writers,  the 
seventy-ninth  year  of  his  age,  and  died,  through  the  mere 
decay  of  nature,  in  the  first  year  of  the  hundred  and  eighth 
Olympiad.  He  passed  his  whole  life  in  a  state  of  celibacy, 
and  therefore  left  no  natural  heirs,  but  transferred  his  effects 
by  will  to  his  friend  Adimantus.  The  grove  and  garden, 
which  had  been  the  scene  of  his  philosophical  labors,  at  last 
afforded  him  a  sepulchre.  Statues  and  altars  were  erected  to 
his  memory ;  the  day  of  his  birth  long  continued  to  be  cele- 
brated as  a  festival  by  his  followers-;  and  his  portrait  is  to  this 
day  preserved  in  gems ;  but  the  most  lasting  monuments  of  his 
genius  are  his  writings,  which  have  been  transmitted,  without 
material  injury,  to  the  present  times. 

The  personal  character  of  Plato  has  been  very  differently 
represented.  On  the  one  hand,  his  encomiasts  have  not  failed 
to  adorn  him  with  every  excellence,  and  to  express  the  most 
superstitious  veneration  for  his  memory.  His  enemies,  on  the 
other,  have  not  scrupled  to  load  him  with  reproach,  and 
charge  him  with  practices  shamefully  inconsistent  with  the 
purity  and  dignity  of  the  philosophical  character. 

Several  anecdotes  are  preserved,  which  reflect  honor  upon 
the  moral  principles  and  character  of  Plato.  Such  was  his 
command  of  temper  that,  when  he  was  lifting  up  his  hand  to 
correct  his  servant  for  some  offence,  perceiving  himself  angry, 
he  kept  his  arm  fixed  in  that  posture,  and  said  to  a  friend,  who, 
coming  in  that  instant,  asked  him  what  lie  was  doing,  "  I  am 

22 


254  PLINY      THE      ELDER. 

punishing  a  passionate  man."  At  the  Olympic  games  he 
happened  to  pass  a  day  with  some  strangers,  who  were  much 
delighted  with  his  easy  and  affable  conversation,  but  were  no 
farther  informed  concerning  him  than  that  his  name  was  Plato ; 
for  he  had  purposely  avoided  saying  anything  concerning  Soc- 
ratts  or  the  Academy.  At  parting,  he  invited  them,  when 
they  should  visit  Athens,  to  take  up  their  residence  at  his 
house.  Not  long  afterwards  they  accepted  his  invitation,  and 
were  courteously  entertained.  During  their  stay  they  request- 
ed that  he  would  introduce  them  to  his  namesake,  the  famous 
philosopher,  and  show  them  his  Academy.  Plato,  smiling, 
said,  "  I  am  the  person  you  wish  to  see."  The  discovery  sur- 
prised them  exceedingly ;  for  they  could  not  easily  persuade 
themselves  that  so  eminent  a  philosopher  would  condescend  to 
converse  so  familiarly  with  strangers.  "When  Plato  was  told 
that  his  enemies  were  busily  employed  in  circulating  reports 
to  his  disadvantage,  he  said,  "I  will  live  so,  that  none  shall 
believe  them."  One  of  his  friends  remarking,  that  he  seemed 
as  desirous  to  learn  himself,  as  to  teach  others,  asked  him  how 
long  he  intended  to  be  a  scholar?  "As  long,"  said  he,  "as 
I  am  not  ashamed  to  grow  wiser  and  better." 


PLINY  THE  ELDER. 

CAITTS  PLINITJS  SECUNDTTS,  called  Pliny  the  Elder,  to  dis- 
tinguish hint  from  his  nephew  Caius  Plinius  Caacilius,  was 
born  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius,  about  the  year  twenty-three, 
and  is  commonly  said  to  have  been  a  native  of  Verona.  In 
his  youth,  he  took  upon  him  the  military  character,  and 
served  in  the  army  in  the  German  war ;  but  he  soon  turned 
the  course  of  his  ambition  into  the  channel  of  learning,  and 
by  the  indefatigable  use  of  excellent  talents  acquired  exten- 
sive and  profound  erudition.  During  the  life  of  Nero  his 


PLINY     THE     ELDER.  255 

dread  of  o.ie  savage  spirit  of  that  tyrant  induced  him  to  pros- 
ecute his  studies  in  private.  Towards  the  close  of  -the  reign 
of  that  emperor,  he  wrote  a  political  work  on  ambiguity  of 
expression.  Under  the  more  favorable  auspices  of  Vespasian, 
the  superior  abilities  of  Pliny  had  an  opportunity  of  display- 
ing themselves,  not  only  in  literary  speculations,  but  in  pub- 
lic affairs ;  for  that  emperor  admitted  him  to  his  confidence, 
and  employed  him  in  important  posts.  In  the  midst  of  in- 
numerable avocations,  he  prosecuted  his  studies  with  a  de- 
gree of  industry  and  perseverance  scarcely  to  be  paralleled. 
What  his  nephew  relates  on  this  head  must  not  be  omitted. 
After  enumerating  his  writings,  he  says : 

"  You  will  wonder  how  a  man  of  business  could  find  time 
to  write  so  much,  and  often  upon  such  difficult  subjects.  You 
will  be  still  more  surprised  when  you  are  informed,  that  for 
some  time  he  engaged  in  the  profession  of  an  advocate ;  that 
he  died  in  his  fifty-sixth  year  ;  and  that,  from  the  time  of  his 
quitting  the  bar  to  his  death,  he  was  busily  occupied  in  the 
execution  of  the  highest  posts,  and  in  the  service  of  his 
prince.  But  he  had  a  quick  apprehension,  joined  to  unwea- 
ried application.  In  summer  he  always  began  his  studies  as 
soon  as  it  was  night;  in  winter,  generally  at  one  in  the 
morning,  but  never  later  than  two,  and  sometimes  at  mid- 
night. He  slept  little,  and  this  often  without  retiring  to  his 
chamber.  After  a  short  and  light  repast  at  noon,  according 
to  the  custom  of  our  ancestors,  he  would  frequently,  in  sum- 
mer, if  he  was  disengaged  from  business,  recline  in  the  sun  : 
some  author,  in  the  meantime,  being  read  to  him,  from  which 
he  made  extracts  and  observations.  This  indeed  was  his 
constant  practice  in  reading;  for  he  used  to  say,  that  no 
book  was  so  bad,  but  something  might  be  learned  from  it. 
When  this  was  over,  he  commonly  went  into  the  cold  bath, 
and  as  soon  as  he  came  out  of  it,  took  a  slight  refreshment, 
and  then  reposed  himself  for  a  short  time.  After  which,  as 
if  it  had  been  a  new  day,  he  resumed  his  studies  till  supper 


256  PLINY      THE      ELDER. 

time,  when  a  book  was  again  read  to  him,  upon  which  he 
made  some  cursory  remarks.  In  summer,  he  rose  from  sup- 
per by  day-light,  and  in  winter,  as  soon  as  it  was  dark,  and 
this  was  an  invariable  rule  with  him.  Such  was  his  manner 
of  life,  amidst  the  noise  and  hurry  of  the  town.  But  in  the 
country,  his  whole  time  was  devoted  to  study.  Even  in  the 
bath,  while  he  was  rubbed  and  wiped,  either  some  book  was 
read  to  him,  or  he  dictated  himself.  When  he  was  travelling, 
he  attended  to  no  other  object.  A  secretary  constantly  at- 
tended him  in  his  chariot.  For  the  same  reason  he  was 
always,  at  Rome,  conveyed  from  one  place  to  another  in  a 
chair.  I  remember  he  once  reproved  me  for  walking  :  '  You 
need  not,'  says  he,  '  lose  so  much  time  :'  fpr  he  thought  all 
time  lost,  which  was  not  devoted  to  study.  It  was  this  in- 
tense application  which  enabled  my  uncle  to  write  so  many 
volumes,  besides  a  hundred  and  sixty,  which  he  left  me,  con- 
taining extracts  and  observations,  written  in  a  very  small 
character." 

Out  of  all  the  rich  fruits  of  Pliny's  industry,  one  work  only 
has  escaped  the  ravages  of  time,  his  u  Natural  History  of  the 
"World :"  a  valuable  treasury  of  ancient  knowledge ;  con- 
cerning which,  notwithstanding  all  its  errors  and  extrava- 
gancies, we  do  not  scruple,  with  some  allowance  for  rhetori- 
cal decoration,  to  subscribe  to  the  judgment  of  the  Younger 
Pliny,  who  calls  it  "  a  comprehensive  and  learned  work 
scarcely  less  various  than  Nature  herself." 

The  insatiable  desire  which  this  philosopher  always  discov- 
ered to  become  acquainted  with  the  wonders  of  Nature  at  last 
proved  fatal  to  him.  An  eruption  of  the  volcano  of  Mount  Ve- 
uvius  happening  while  Pliny  lay  with  the  fleet  under  his  com- 
mand, at  Misenum,  his  curiosity  induced  him  to  approach  so 
near  to  the  mountain,  that  he  was  suffocated  by  the  gross  and 
noxious  vapors  which  it  sent  forth.  An  interesting  account 
of  this  tragical  event  is  given  b  Pliny  the  Younger.  It  hap- 
pened in  the  year  79. 


POLEMO.  257 

POLEMO. 

POLEMO  was  an  Athenian  of  distinction,  who  in  his  youth 
had  been  addicted  to  infamous  pleasures.  The  manner  in 
which  he  was  reclaimed  from  his  licentious  course  of  life,  and 
brought  under  the  discipline  of  philosophy,  affords  a  memor- 
able example  of  the  power  of  eloquence  when  it  is  employed 
in  the  cause  of  virtue.  As  he  was  one  morning,  about  the 
rising  of  the  sun,  returning  home  from  the  revels  of  the 
night,  clad  in  a  loose  robe,  crowned  with  garlands,  strongly 
perfumed,  and  intoxicated  with  wine,  he  passed  by  the  school 
of  Xenocrates,  and  saw  him  surrounded  with  his  disciples. 
Unable  to  resist  "so  fortunate  an  opportunity  of  indulging 
his  sportive  humor,  he  rushed,  without  ceremony,  into  the 
school,  and  took  his  place  among  the  philosophers.  The 
whole  assembly  was  astonished  at  this  rude  and  indecent 
intrusion,  and  all  but  Xenocrates  discovered  signs  of  resent- 
ment. Xenocrates,  however,  preserved  the  perfect  command 
of  his  countenance,  and,  with  great  presence  of  mind,  turned 
his  discourse  from  the  subject  on  which  he  was  treating  to 
the  topics  of  temperance  and  modesty,  which  he  recom- 
mended with  such  strength  of  argument,  and  energy  of 
language,  that  Polemo  was  constrained  to  yield  to  the  force 
of  conviction.  Instead  of  turning  the  philosopher  and  his 
doctrine  to  ridicule,  as  he  at  first  intended,  he  became  sensible 
of  the  folly  of  his  former  conduct,  was  heartily  ashamed  of 
the  contemptible  figure  which  he  made  in  so  respectable  an 
assembly,  took  his  garland  from  his  head,  concealed  his  naked 
arm  under  his  cloak,  assumed  a  sedate  and  thoughtful  aspect, 
and,  in  short,  resolved  from  that  hour  to  relinquish  his  licen- 
tious pleasures,  and  devote  himself  to  the  pursuit  of  wisdom. 
Thus  was  this  young  man,  by  the  powerful  energy  of  truth 
and  eloquence,  in  an  instant  converted  from  an  infamous  lib- 
ertine to  a  respectable  philosopher.  In  such  a  sudden  change 
of  character  it  is  difficult  to  avoid  passing  from  one  extreme 

9.9* 


258  P  O  L  E  M  O  . 

to  another.  Polemo,  after  his  reformation,  in  order  to  brace 
up  his  mind  to  the  tone  of  rigid  virtue,  constantly  practiced 
the  severest  austerity  and  most  hardy  fortitude.  From  the 
thirtieth  year  of  his  age  till  his  death  he  drank  nothing  but 
water.  "When  he  suffered  violent  pain,  he  showed  no  external 
sign  of  anguish.  In  order  to  preserve  his  mind  undisturbed 
by  passion,  he  habituated  himself  to  speak  in  an  uniform  tone 
of  voice,  without  elevation  or  depression.  The  austerity  of 
his  manners  was,  however,  tempered  with  urbanity  and  gen- 
erosity. He  was  fond  of  solitude,  and  passed  much  of  his 
time  in  a  garden  near  his  school.  He  died  at  an  advanced 
age,  of  consumption. 

Diogenes  Laertius  says  of  him,  that  after  his  reformation 
he  always  continued  the  same  in  appearance  and  never  even 
changed  his  voice,  on  which  account,  Oranton  was  charmed 
by  him.  Accordingly  on  one  occasion,  when  a  dog  was  mad 
and  had  bitten  his  leg,  he  was  the  only  person  who  did  not 
turn  pale  ;  and  once,  when  there  was  a  great  confusion  in  the 
city,  he,  having  heard  the  cause,  remained  where  he  was 
without  fleeing.  In  the  theatres  too,  he  was  quite  immov- 
able ;  accordingly,  when  Nicostratus  the  poet  was  once  reading 
something  to  him  and  Crates,  and  the  latter  was  excited  to 
sympathy,  he  behaved  as  though  he  heard  nothing. 

He  was  a  well-bred  and  high-spirited  man,  avoiding  what 
Aristophanes  says  of  Euripides,  speeches  of  vinegar  and  assa- 
foetida,  such  as  he  says  himself: — 

Are  base  delights  compared  with  better  things ! 

He  was  accustomed  to  lecture  and  discuss  propositions  not 
sitting,  but  whilst  walking.  He  was  much  honored  because 
of  his  noble  sentiments.  After  he  had  been  walking  about, 
he  would  rest  in  his  garden ;  and  his  pupils  erected  little 
cabins  near  it,  and  dwelt  near  his  school  and  corridor.  He 
left  behind  him  a  great  number  of  writings.  And  there  is 
this  epigram  of  ours  upon  him  : — 


p  R  o  c  L  u  s .  259 

Do  you  not  hear,  we  've  buried  Polemo, 
Whom  sickness,  worst  affliction  of  mankind, 
Attacked,  and  bore  off  to  the  shades  below  ; 
Yet  Polemo  lies  not  here,  but  Polemo's  body, 
And  that  he  did  himself  place  here  on  earth, 
Prepared  in  soul  to  mount  up  to  the  skies. 


PROOLUS. 

PEOCLUS,  according  to  his  biographer  Marinus,  was  a  na- 
tive of  Constantinople,  and  was  born  in  the  year  four  hun- 
dred and  twelve.  His  .parents  having  been  inhabitants  of 
Xanthus  in  Lycia,  he  is  commonly  spoken  of  as  a  Lycian. 
He  received  the  first  rudiments  of  learning  at  Xanthus,  and 
afterwards  studied  eloquence  and  polite  literature  under  Isau- 
rus  at  Alexandria,  with  a  view  to  qualify  himself  for  the  pro- 
fession of  the  law.  This  design,  however,  he  soon  relin- 
quished, and  wholly  devoted  himself  to  philosophy.  From 
Olyrnpiodorus  he  learned  the  Aristotleian  system  combined 
with  the  Platonic  ;  and  he  was  instructed  in  Mathematics  by 
Hero.  His  facility  of  conception  and  strength  of  memory 
were  such,  that  when  his  master's  lectures,  through  the  ra- 
pidity of  his  utterance,  or  the  abstruse  nature  of  his  subject, 
were  not  clearly  understood  by  the  rest  of  the  pupils,  he  was 
able  to  give  an  accurate  summary  of  the  arguments,  in  the  or- 
der in  which  they  had  been  delivered ;  a  circumstance  which 
gained  him  great  credit  and  esteem  among  his  fellow-stu- 
dents. 

Having  spent  several  years  in  the  Alexandrian  schools, 
Proclus  determined  to  visit  Athens.  Here  he  first  became 
acquainted  with  Syrian,  who  introduced  him  to  Plutarch  the 
son  of  Nestorius.  The  old  man  was  delighted  with  the  at- 
tainments of  this  young  stranger,  and  undertook  to  conduct 
him  into  the  more  recondite  mysteries  of  philosophy.  Plu- 
tarch, dying  two  years  afterwards,  left  Proclus  to  the  care  of 


260  P  R  O  C  L  U  S  . 

his  successor,  Syi  .an,  under  whose  direction  the  young  man 
prosecuted  his  studies  with  indefatigable  industry.  He 
reaped  great  benefit  from  the  practice  recommended  to  him 
by  Plutarch,  of  writing,  from  his  own  recollection,  compend- 
ious abridgements  of  the  lectures  which  he  had  heard  from 
his  preceptor.  At  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  he  had  written, 
besides  many  other  pieces,  his  "  Commentary  on  the  Timseus  of 
Plato,"  full  of  that  kind  of  learning  which  at  this  time  pre- 
vailed in  the  Platonic  schools.  In  order  to  reach  the  point, 
which  was  in  these  schools  esteemed  the  summit  of  wisdom, 
Proclus  diligently  studied  the  theology  of  the  sect,  both  that 
which  respects  the  contemplation  of  the  Supreme  Deity,  and 
that  which  was  supposed  to  lead  to  an  intercourse  with  infe- 
rior divinities.  He  was  instructed  in  the  Chaldean  arts  of  di- 
vination, and  in  the  nse  of  mystical  words,  and  other  charms, 
by  Plutarch's  daughter,  Asclepigenia,  who  inherited  from  her 
father  many  secrets  of  this  kind.  He  was  also  initiated  into 
the  Eleusinian  mysteries.  By  these  helps,  and  by  diligent 
study  of  the  writings  of  Plotinus,  Porphyry,  and  Jamblicus, 
he  became,  if  Harimis  may  be  credited,  a  complete  master, 
not  only  of  divine  science,  but  of  theurgic  powers. 

Thus  accomplished,  Proclus  was  judged  by  Syrian  worthy  to 
share  with  him  the  honors  and  profits  of  the  Platonic  chair. 
And  there  can  be  no  doubt,  after  what  has  been  related,  that 
he  was  eminently  qualified  for  the  ofiice  of  preceptor  in 
the  Alexandrian  philosophy.  His  biographer  may  be  easily 
credited  when  he  asserts,  that  Proclus  excelled  all  his  pred- 
ecessors in  the  knowledge  of  this  system,  and  that  he  im- 
proved it  by  many  new  dicoveries,  and  was  the  author  of 
many  opinions  which  had  never  before  entered  into  the 
mind  of  man,  both  on  the  subject  of  physics,  and  in  the  sub- 
lime science  of  Ideas.  The  lectures  which  Proclus  delivered 
in  his  school  were  obscure  and  enthusiastic  ;  but  they  suited 
the  genius  and  taste  of  the  age,  and  he  had  many  followers. 

The  piety  of  Proclus  is  highly  extolled  by  his  biographer. 


PROTAGORAS.  261 

Of  what  sort  it  was  may  be  learned  from  the  superstitious 
manner  in  which  he  conducted  his  devotions.  Besides  his 
general  abstinence  from  animal  food,  in  which  he  followed 
the  Pythagorean  discipline,  he  often  practiced  rigorous  fast- 
ings ;  and  he  spent  whole  days  and  nights  in  repeating  prayers 
and  hymns,  that  he  might  prepare  himself  for  immediate 
intercourse  with  the  gods.  He  observed  with  great  solem- 
nity the  new  moons  and  all  public  festivals,  and  on  these  oc- 
casions pretended,  or  fancied,  that  he  conversed  with  superior 
beings,  and  was  able  by  his  sacrifices,  prayers,  and  hymns, 
to  expel  diseases,  to  command  rain,  to  stop  an  earthquake,  and 
to  perform  other  similar  wonders.  Mariuus  does  not  scruple 
to  assert  that,  on  these  occasions,  Proclus  partook  of  divine 
inspiration,  and  that  a  celestial  glory  irradiated  his  counte- 
nance. He  even  relates,  that  God  himself  appeared  to  him 
in  a  human  form,  and  with  an  audible  voice  hailed  him  as  the 
glory  of  the  city.  In  his  old  age  his  mental  infirmities,  as 
might  naturally  be  expected,  increased  with  those  of  his  body  ; 
and  he  fancied,  between  sleeping  and  waking  (the  season  in 
which  these  visions  commonly  happen),  that  Esculapius  ap- 
proached him  in  the  form  of  a  dragon,  and  relieved  his  pain. 
Without  attempting  accurately  to  determine  how  much  of 
these  tales  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  invention  of  Marinus,  and 
how  much  to  the  fanaticism  of  his  master,  we  may  perceive 
in  them  proofs  of  superstitious  weakness,  of  artful  hypocrisy, 
or  of  a  strange  union  of  both,  abundantly  sufficient  to  justify 
us  in  ranking  Proclus  among  enthusiasts  or  impostors,  rather 
than  among  philosophers. 


PKOTAGOR  AS. 

/*>wyrAGOKAs  of  Abdera,  was  the  most  celebrated  disciple  of 
Democritus.  In  his  youth  his  poverty  obliged  him  to  per- 
form the  servile  offices  of  a  porter,  and  he  was  frequently  em- 


262  PROTAGORAS. 

ployed  in  carrying  logs  of  wood  from  the  neighboring  fields 
to  Abdera.  It  happened,  that  as  he  was  one  day  going  on 
briskly  towards  the  city  under  one  of  those  loads,  he  was  met 
by  Deinocritus,  who  was  particularly  struck  with  the  neat- 
ness and  regularity  of  the  bundle.  Desiring  him  to  stop  and 
rest  himself,  Democritus  examined  more  closely  the  structure 
of  the  load,  and  found  that  it  was  put  together  with  math- 
ematical exactness  ;  upon  which  he  asked  the  youth  whether 
he  himself  had  made  it  up.  The  youth  assured  him  that  he 
had,  and  immediately  took  it  to  pieces,  and  with  great  ease 
replaced  every  log  in  the  same  exact  order  as  before.  Democ- 
ritus expressed  much  admiration  of  his  ingenuity,  and  said 
to  him,  "  Young  man,  follow  me,  and  your  talents  shall  be 
employed  upon  greater  and  better  things."  The  youth  con- 
sented, and  Democritus  took  him  home,  maintained  him  at 
his  own  expense,  and  taught  him  philosophy. 

Protagoras  afterward  acquired  reputation  at  Athens,  among 
the  sophists  for  his  eloquence,  and  among  the  philosophers  for 
his  wisdom.  His  public  lectures  were  frequented,  and  he 
had  many  disciples,  from  whom  he  received  the  most  liberal 
rewards;  so  that,  as  Plato  relates,  he  became  exceedingly 
rich.  At  length,  however,  he  brought  upon  himself  the  dis- 
pleasure of  the  Athenian  state,  by  teaching  doctrines  favor- 
able to  impiety.  In  one  of  his  books  he  said,  "  Concerning  the 
gods,  I  am  wholly  unable  to  determine  whether  they  have  any 
existence  or  not;  for  the  weakness  of  the  human  understand- 
ing, and  the  shortness  of  human  life,  with  many  other  causes, 
prevent  us  from  attaining  this  knowledge."  On  account  of 
this  and  several  other  similar  expressions,  his  writings  were 
ordered  to  be  diligently  collected  by  the  common  crier,  and 
burnt  in  the  market-place,  and  he  himself  was  banished  from 
Attica.  He  wrote  many  pieces  upon  logic,  metaphysics, 
ethics,  and  politics,  none  of  which  are  at  present  extant. 
After  having  lived  many  years  in  Epirus,  he  was  lost  by  sea 
on  his  passage  from  that  country  to  Sicily. 


R  R  H  0  .  263 


PYRRHO. 

PYKEHO  was  a  citizen  of  Elis  and  the  son  of  Pleistarchus. 
He  was  originally  a  painter.  He  asserted  that  there  was  no 
such  thing  as  downright  truth,  but  that  men  did  everything  in 
consequence  of  custom  and  law.  His  life  corresponded  to  his 
principles ;  for  he  never  shunned  anything  and  never  guarded 
against  anything,  encountering  everything,  even  waggons, 
prcipices,  dogs,  and  things  of  that  sort,  committing  nothing 
whatever  to  his  senses.  So  that  he  used  to  be  saved  by  his 
friends  who  accompanied  him.  He  studied  philosophy  on  the 
principle  of  suspending  his  judgment  on  all  points.  He  used 
to  walk  out  into  the  fields  and  seek  solitary  places,  very  rarely 
appearing  to  his  family  at  Rome ;  and  he  did  this  in  conse- 
quence of  having  heard  some  Indian  reproaching  Anaxarchus 
for  never  teaching  any  one  else  any  good,  but  for  devoting  all 
his  time  to  paying  court  to  princes  in  palaces.  He  relates  of 
him  too,  that  he  always  maintained  the  same  demeanor,  so 
that  if  any  one  left  him  in  the  middle  of  his  delivery  of  a  dis- 
course, he  remained  and  continued  what  he  was  saying ;  al- 
though, when  a  young  man,  he  was  of  a  very  excitable  tem- 
perament. Often  too,  says  Antigonus,  he  would  go  away  for 
a  time,  without  telling  any  one  beforehand,  and  taking  any 
chance  persons  whom  he  chose  for  his  companions.  And 
once,  when  Anaxarchus  had  fallen  into  a  pond,  he  passed  by 
without  assisting  him ;  and  when  some  one  blamed  him  for 
this,  Anaxarchus  himself  praised  his  indifference  and  absence 
of  all  emotion. 

On  one  occasion  he  was  detected  talking  to  himself,  and 
wThen  he  was  asked  the  reason,  he  said  that  he  was  studying 
how  to  be  good.  In  his  investigations  he  was  never  despised 
by  any  one,  because  he  always  spoke  explicitly  and  straight  to 
the  question  that  had  been  put  to  him.  On  which  account 
Nausiphanes  was  charmed  by  him  even  v,  h  >. ;  i  he  was  quite 


264  PYRRHO. 

young.  And  he  used  to  say  that  he  should  like  to  be  endowed 
with  the  disposition  of  Pyrrho,  without  losing  his  own  power 
of  eloquence.  And  he  said  too,  that  Epicurus,  who  admired 
the  conversation  and  manner  of  Pyrrho,  was  frequently  asking 
him  about  him. 

He  was  so  greatly  honored  by  his  country,  that  he  was  ap- 
pointed a  priest ;  and  on  this  account  all  the  philosophers 
were  exempted  from  taxation.  He  had  a  great  many  imita- 
tors of  his  impassiveness  ;  in  reference  to  which  Tirnon  speaks 
thus  of  him  in  his  Python,  and  in  his  Silli : — 

Now,  you  old  man,  you  Pyrrho,  how  could  you 
Find  an  escape  from  all  the  slavish  doctriues 
And  vain  imaginations  of  the  Sophists? 
How  did  you  free  yourself  from  all  the  bonds 
Of  sly  chicane,  and  artful  deep  persuasion  ? 
How  came  you  to  neglect  what  sort  of  breeze 
Blows  round  your  Greece,  and  what's  the  origin 
And  end  of  everything  ? 

And  again,  in  his  Images,  he  says  : — 

These  things,  my  heart,  O  Pyrrho,  longs  to  hear, 
How  you  enjoy  such  ease  of  life  and  quiet, 
The  only  man  as  happy  as  a  God. 

The  Athenians  presented  him  with  the  freedom  of  their 
city,  as  Diocles  tells  us,  because  he  had  slain  Cotys,  the  Thra- 
cian. 

He  also  lived  in  a  most  blameless  manner  with  his  sister, 
who  was  a  midwife,  as  Eratosthenes  relates,  in  his  treatise  on 
Riches  and  Poverty  ;  so  that  he  himself  used  to  carry  poultry, 
and  pigs  too  if  he  could  get  any,  into  the  market  place  and  sell 
them.  He  used  to  clean  all  the  furniture  of  the  house  without 
expressing  any  annoyance.  It  is  said  that  he  carried  his  indif- 
ference so  far  that  he  even  washed  a  pig.  Once,  when  he  was 
very  angry  about  something  connected  with  his  sister  (and  her 
name  was  Philista),  and  some  one  took  him  up,  he  said,  "  The 
display  of  my  indifference  does  not  depend  on  a  woman."  On 
another  occasion,  when  IK  was  driven  back  by  a  dog  which 


P  Y  R  R  H  0  .  265 

was  attacking  him,  he  said  to  some  one  who  blamed  him  for 
being  discomposed,  "  That  it  was  a  difficult  thing  entirely  to 
put  off  humanity  ;  but  that  a  man  ought  to  strive  with  all  his 
power  to  counteract  circumstances  with  his  actions  if  possible, 
and  at  all  events  with  his  reason."  They  also  tell  a  story  that 
once,  when  some  medicines  of  a  consuming  tendency,  and 
some  cutting  and  cautery  was  applied  to  him  for  some  wound, 
that  he  never  even  contracted  his  brow.  Timon  intimates  his 
disposition  plainly  enough  in  the  letters  which  he  wrote  to 
Python.  Moreover,  Philo,  the  Athenian,  who  was  a  friend  of 
his,  said  that  he  was  especially  fond  of  Democritus ;  and  next 
to  him  of  Homer ;  whom  he  admired  greatly,  and  was  con- 
tinually saying : — 

But  as  the  race  of  falling  leaves  decay, 
Such  is  the  fate  of  man. 

He  used  also,  as  it  is  said,  to  compare  men  to  wasps,  and  flies, 
and  birds,  and  to  quote  the  following  lines  :— 

Die  then,  my  friend,  what  boots  it  to  deplore  ? 
The  great,  the  good  Patroclus  is  no  more. 
He,  far  thy  better,  was  foredoom'd  to  die ; 
And  thou,  doest  thou  bewail  mortality  ? 

And  so  he  would  quote  anything  that  bore  on  the  uncer- 
tainty and  emptiness  and  fickleness  of  the  affairs  of  man.  Posi- 
donius  tells  the  following  anecdote  about  him :  that  when 
some  people  who  were  sailing  with  him  were  looking  gloomy 
because  of  a  storm,  he  kept  a  calm  countenance,  and  comfort- 
ed their  minds,  exhibiting  himself  on  deck  eating  a  pig,  and 
saying  that  it  became  a  wise  man  to  preserve  an  untroubled 
spirit  in  that  manner. 

He  had  many  eminent  disciples,  and  among  them  Euryl- 
ochus,  of  whom  the  following  defective  characteristic  is  re- 
lated ;  for,  they  say,  that  he  was  once  worked  up  to  such  a 
pitch  of  rage  that  he  took  up  a  spit  with  the  meat  on  it,  and 
chased  the  cook  as  far  as  the  market-place.  And  once  in 
Elis  he  was  so  harassed  by  some  people  who  put  questions  to 


>  pec 


266  P  Y  R  R  H  O  . 

him  in  the  middle  of  his  discourses,  that  lie  threw  down  his 
cloak  and  swam  across  the  Alphetis.  He  was  the  greatest 
possible  enemy  to  the  Sophists,  as  Timon  tells  us.  But  Philo, 
**n  the  contrary,  was  very  fond  of  arguing ;  on  which  account 
i'imon.  speaks  of  him  thus  : — 

Avoiding  men  to  study  all  devoted, 

He  ponders  with  himself;  and  never  heeds 

The  glory  or  disputes  which  harass  Philo. 

All  these  men  were  called  Pyrrhoneans  from  their  master  ; 
and  also  doubters,  and  sceptics,  and  ephectics,  or  suspenders 
of  their  judgment,  and  investigators,  from  their  principles. 
And  their  philosophy  was  called  investigatory,  from  their  in- 
vestigating or  seeking  the  truth  on  all  sides ;  and  sceptical 
from  their  being  always  doubting  (sfceptemafy  and  never  find- 
ing ;  and  ephectic,  from  the  disposition  which  they  encouraged 
after  investigation,  I  mean  the  suspending  of  their  judgment 
(epoche)  ;  and  doubting,  because  they  asserted  that  the  dog- 
matic philosophers  only  doubted,  and  that  they  did  the  same. 

Some  say  that  Homer  was  the  original  founder  of  this 
school ;  since  he  at  different  times  gives  different  accounts  of 
the  same  circumstance,  as  much  as  any  one  else  ever  did  ;  and 
since  he  never  dogmatizes  definitively  respecting  affirmation ; 
they  also  say  that  the  maxims  of  the  seven  wise  men  were 
sceptical ;  such  as  that,  "  Seek  nothing  in  excess,"  and  that 
u  Suretyship  is  near  calamity  ;"  which  shows  that  calamity 
follows  a  man  who  has  given  positive  and  certain  surety ; 
they  also  argue  that  Archilochus  and  Euripides  were  Sceptics ; 
and  Archilochus  speaks  thus  : — 

And  now,  O  Glaucus,  son  of  Leptines, 

Such  is  the  mind  of  mortal  man,  which  changes 

With  every  day  that  Jupiter  doth  send. 

And  Euripides  says: — 

Why  then  do  men  assert  that  wretched  mortals 
Are  with  true  wisdom  gifted;  for  on  you 
We  all  depend  ;  and  we  do  everything 
Which  pleases 


P  Y  R  R  H  0  .  267 

Moreover,  Xenophanes,  and  Zeno  the  Eleatic,  and  Dernocritua 
were  also  Sceptics  ;  of  whom  Xenophanes  speaks  thus  :— 

And  no  man  knows  distinctly  anything, 
And  no  man  ever  will. 

Zeno  endeavors  to  put  an  end  to  the  doctrine  of  motion  by 
saying :  "  The  object  moved  does  not  move  either  in  the  place 
in  which  it  is,  or  in  that  in  which  it  is  not."  Democritus,  too, 
discards  the  qualities,  where  he  says  :  ^  What  is  cold  is  cold  in 
opinion,  and  what  is  hot  is  hot  in  opinion  ;  but  atoms  and  the 
vacuum  exist  in  reality."  And  again  he  says  :  u  But  we  know 
nothing  really  ;  for  truth  lies  in  the  bottom."  Plato,  too,  fol- 
lowing them,  attributes  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  to  the 
Gods  and  to  the  sons  of  the  Gods,  and  leaves  men  only  the 
investigation  of  probability.  And  Euripides  says  : — 

Who  now  can  tell  whether  to  live  may  not 
Be  properly  to  die.    And  whether  that 
Which  men  do  call  to  die,  may  not  in  truth 
Be  but  the  entrance  into  real  life  ? 

Empedocles  speaks  thus  : — 

These  things  are  not  perceptible  to  sight, 
Nor  to  the  ears,  nor  comprehensible 
To  human  intellect. 

In  a  preceding  passage  he  says  : — 

Believing  nothing,  but  such  circumstances 
As  have  befallen  each. 

Heraclitus,  too,  says,  "Let  us  not  form  conjectures  at 
random,  about  things  of  the  greatest  importance,"  And  Hip- 
pocrates delivers  his  opinion  in  a  very  doubtful  manner,  such 
as  becomes  a  man ;  and  before  them  all  Homer  has  said  : — 

Long  in  the  field  of  words  we  may  contend, 
Reproach  is  infinite  and  knows  no  end. 

And  immediately  after  : — 

Armed,  or  with  truth  or  falsehood,  right  or  wrong, 
(So  voluble  a  weapon  is  the  tongue), 
Wounded  we  wound,  and  neither  side  can  fail, 
For  every  man  has  equal  strength  to  rail : 


268  PYTHAGORAS. 

Intimating  the  equal  vigor  and  antethetical  force  of  words. 
And  the  Sceptics  persevered  in  overthrowing  all  the  dogmas 
of  every  sect,  while  they  themselves  asserted  nothing  dog- 
matically ;  and  contented  themselves  with  expressing  the 
opinions  of  others,  without  affirming  anything  themselves,  not 
even  that  they  did  affirm  nothing. 


PYTHAGORAS. 

THEEE  is  a  great  uncertainty  as  to  the  parentage,  the  birth- 
place, and  the  time  of  the  birth  of  Pythagoras. 

The  account  of  Diogenes  Laertius  is  that  he  was  a  pupil  of 
Pherecydes  and  after  his  death,  of  Hermodamas. 

As  he  was  a  young  man,  devoted  to  learning,  he  quitted 
his  country  and  got  initiated  into  all  the  Grecian  and  barba- 
rian sacred  mysteries.  Accordingly  he  went  to  Egypt,  on 
which  occasion  Poly  crates  gave  him  a  letter  of  introduction  to 
Amasis ;  and  he  learnt  the  Egyptian  language,  and  he  asso- 
ciated with  the  Chaldeans  and  with  the  Magi. 

Afterwards  he  went  to  Crete,  and  in  company  with  Epi- 
menides,  he  descended  into  the  Ideean  cave,  (and  in  Egypt 
too,  he  entered  into  the  holiest  parts  of  their  temples),  and 
learned  all  the  most  secret  mysteries  that  relate  to  their 
Gods.  Then  he  returned  back  again  to  Samos,  and  finding 
his  country  reduced  under  the  absolute  dominion  of  Polyc- 
rates,  he  set  sail,  and  fled  to  Crotona  in  Italy.  And  there, 
having  given  laws  to  the  Italians,  he  gained  a  very  high  rep- 
utation, together  with  his  scholars,  who  were  about  three 
hundred  in  number,  and  governed  the  republic  in  a  most 
excellent  manner ;  so  that  the  constitution  was  very  nearly 
an  aristocracy. 

Heraclides  Ponticus  says,  that  he  was  accustomed  to  speak 
of  himself  in  this  manner  ;  that  he  had  formerly  been 


PYTHAGORAS,  269 

ides,  and  had  been  accounted  the  son  of  Mercury ;  and  that 
Mercury  had  desired  him  to  select  any  gift  he  pleased  except 
immortality.  And  that  he  accordingly  had  requested  that, 
whether  living  or  dead,  he  might  preserve  the  memory  of 
what  had  happened  to  him.  While,  therefore,  he  was  alive, 
he  recollected  everything;  and  when  he  was  dead,  he  re- 
tained the  same  memory.  And  at  a  subsequent  period  he 
passed  into  Euphorbus,  and  was  wounded  by  Menelaus.  And 
while  he  was  Euphorbus,  he  used  to  say  that  he  had  formerly 
been  .ZEthalides ;  and  that  he  had  received  as  a  gift  from 
Mercury  the  perpetual  transmigration  of  his  soul,  so  that  it. 
was  constantly  transmigrating  and  passing  into  whatever 
plants  or  animals  it  pleased  ;  and  he  had  also  received  the 
gift  of  knowing  and  recollecting  all  that  his  soul  had  suffered 
in  hell,  and  what  sufferings  too  are  endured  by  the  rest  of 
the  souls. 

But  after  Euphorbus  died,  he  said  that  his  soul  had  passed 
into  Hermotimus ;  and  when  he  wished  to  convince  people  of 
this  he  went  into  the  territory  of  the  Branchidae,  and  going 
into  the  temple  of  Apollo,  he  showed  his  shield  which  Mene- 
laus had  dedicated  there  as  an  offering.  For  he  said  that  he, 
when  he  sailed  from  Troy,  had  offered  up  his  shield  *  which 
was  already  getting  worn  out,  to  Apollo,  and  that  nothing 
remained  but  the  ivory  face  which  was  on  it.  And  when 
Hermotimus  died,  then  he  said  that  he  had  become  Pyrrhus, 

*  This  resembles  the  account  which  Ovid  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Pythago- 
ras, in  the  last  book  of  his  Metamorphoses,  where  he  makes  him  say  : — 

Death  has  no  power  th'  immortal  soul  to  slay ; 
That,  when  its  present  body  turns  to  clay, 
Seeks  a  fresh  home,  and  with  unmimslv'd  might, 
Inspires  another  frame  with  life  and  light. 
So  I  myself,  (well  I  the  past  recall) 
When  the  fierce  Greeks  begirt  Troy's  holy  wall, 
Was  brave  Euphorbus  ;  and  in  conflict  drear, 
Poured  forth  my  blood  beneath  Atrides'  spear : 
Tho  shield  this  arm  did  bear  I  lately  saw 
In  Juno's  shrine,  a  trophy  of  that  war. 

23* 


270  PYTHAGORAS. 

a  fisherman  of  Delos ;  and  lie  still  recollected  everything, 
how  he  had  been  formerly  ^Ethalides,  then  Euphorbus,  then 
Hermotimus,  and  then  Pyrrhus.  And  when  Pyrrhus  died, 
he  became  Pythagoras,  and  still  recollected  all  the  circum- 
stances that  I  have  been  mentioning. 

Now,  some  people  say  that  Pythagoras  did  not  leave  be- 
hind him  a  single  book  ;  but  they  talk  foolishly ;  for  Herac- 
litus  the  natural  philosopher,  speaks  plainly  enough  of  him, 
saying,  "Pythagoras,  the  son  of  Muesarchus,  was  the  most 
learned  of  all  men  in  history ;  and  having  selected  from  these 
writings,  he  thus  formed  his  own  wisdom  and  extensive 
learning,  and  mischievous  art."  And  he  speaks  thus,  because 
Pythagoras,  in  the  beginning  of  his  treatise  on  Natural  Phi- 
losophy, writes  in  the  following  manner  :  u  By  the  air  which 
I  breathe,  and  by  the  water  which  I  drink,  I  will  not  endure 
to  be  blamed  on  account  of  this  discourse." 

Aristoxenus  asserts  that  Pythagoras  derived  the  greater 
part  of  his  ethical  doctrines  from  Themistocles,  the  priestess 
at  Delphi.  And  Ion,  of  Chios,  in  his  Victories,  says  that  he 
wrote  some  poems  and  attributed  them  to  Orpheus.  They 
also  say  that  the  poem  called  the  Scopeadss  is  by  him,  which 
begins  thus : — 

Behave  not  shamelessly  to  any  one. 

And  Sosicrates,  in  his  Successions,  relates  that  he,  having 
been  asked  by  Leon,  the  tyrant  of  the  Phliasians,  who  he  was, 
replied,  "  A  philosopher."  And  adds,  that  he  used  to  compare 
life  to  a  festival.  "  And  as  some  people  came  to  a  festival  to 
contend  for  the  prizes,  and  others  for  the  purposes  of  traffic, 
and  the  best  as  spectators ;  so  also  in  life,  the  men  of  slavish 
dispositions,"  said  he,  "  are  born  hunters  after  glory  and 
covetousnesss,  but  philosophers  are  seekers  after  truth."  And 
thus  he  spoke  on  this  subject.  But  in  the  three  treatises  above 
mentioned,  the  following  principles  are  laid  down  by  Pythag- 
oras generally. 


PYTHAGORAS.  271 

He  forbids  men  to  pray  for  anything  in  particular  for  them- 
selves, because  they  do  not  know  what  is  good  for  them.  He 
calls  drunkenness  an  expression  identical  with  ruin,  and  rejects 
all  superfluity,  saying,  "  That  no  one  ought  to  exceed  the 
proper  quantity  of  meat  and  drink."  And  on  the  subject  of 
venereal  pleasures,  he  speaks  thus  : — "  One  ought  to  sacrifice 
to  Venus  in  the  winter,  not  in  the  summer ;  and  in  autumn 
and  spring  in  a  lesser  degree.  But  the  practice  is  pernicious 
at  every  season,  and  is  never  good  for  the  health."  And  once 
when  he  was  asked  when  a  man  might  indulge  in  the  pleasures 
of  love,  he  replied,  "  Whenever  you  wish  to  be  weaker  than 
yourself." 

He  divides  the  life  of  man  thus.  A  boy  for  twenty  years  ; 
a  young  man  for  twenty  years ;  a  middle-aged  man  for  twenty 
years;  an  old  man  for  twenty  years.  And  these  different 
ages  correspond  proportionably  to  the  seasons:  boyhood 
answers  to  spring ;  youth  to  summer ;  middle  age  to  autumn ; 
and  old  age  to  winter. 

He  was  the  first  person,  as  Timseus  says,  who  asserted  that 
the  property  of  friends  is  common,  and  that  friendship  is 
equality.  And  his  disciples  used  to  put  all  their  possessions 
together  into  one  store,  and  use  them  in  common ;  and  for 
five  years  they  kept  silence,  doing  nothing  but  listen  to  dis- 
courses, and  never  once  seeing  Pythagoras,  until  they  were 
approved ;  and  after  that  time  they  were  admitted  into  his 
house,  and  allowed  to  see  him.  They  also  abstained  from  the 
use  of  cypress  coffins,  because  the  sceptre  of  Jupiter  was  made 
of  that  wood. 

He  is  said  to  have  been  a  man  of  the  most  dignified  appear- 
ance, and  his  disciples  adopted  an  opinion  respecting  him,  that 
he  was  Apollo  who  had  come  from  the  Hyperboreans ;  and 
it  is  said,  that  once  when  he  was  stripped  naked,  he  was 
seen  to  have  a  golden  thigh.  And  there  were  many  people 
who  affirmed,  that  when  he  was  crossing  the  river  Nessus  it 
addressed  him  by  his  name. 


272  PYTHAGORAS. 

Timseus,  in  the  tenth  book  of  his  Histories,  tells  us,  that  he 
used  to  say  that  women  who  were  married  to  men  had  the 
names  of  the  Gods,  being  successively  called  virgins,  then 
nymphs,  and  subsequently  mothers. 

It  was  Pythagoras  also  who  carried  geometry  to  perfection, 
after  Mceris  had  first  found  out  the  principles  of  the  elements 
of  that  science,  as  Aristiclides  tells  us  in  the  second  book  of 
his  History  of  Alexander ;  and  the  part  of  the  science  to 
which  Pythagoras  applied  himself  above  all  others  was  arith- 
metic. He  also  discovered  the  numerical  relation  of  sounds 
on  a  single  string ;  he  also  studied  medicine.  And  Apollo- 
dorus,  the  logician,  records  of  him,  that  he  sacrificed  a  heca- 
tomb, when  he  had  discovered  that  the  square  of  the  hypothe- 
neuse  of  a  right-angled  triangle  is  equal  to  the  squares  of  the 
sides  containing  the  right  angle.  And  there  is  an  epigram 
which  is  couched  in  the  following  terms  :— 

When  the  great  Samian  sage  his  noble  problem  found, 
A  hundred  oxen  dyed  with  their  life-blood  the  ground. 

He  is  also  said  to  have  been  the  first  man  who  trained 
athletes  on  meat ;  and  Eurymenes  was  the  first  man  who 
ever  did  submit  to  this  diet,  as  before  that  time  men  used  to 
train  themselves  on  dry  figs  and  moist  cheese,  and  wheaten 
bread.  But  some  authors  state,  that  a  trainer  of  the  name  of 
Pythagoras  certainly  did  train  his  athletes  on  this  system,  but 
that  it  was  not  our  philosopher  ;  for  that  he  even  forbade  men 
to  kill  animals  at  all,  much  less  would  have  allowed  his  disci- 
ples to  eat  then,  as  having  a  right  to  live  in  common  witli 
mankind.  And  this  was  his  pretext ;  but  in  reality,  he  pro- 
hibited the  eating  of  animals,  because  he  wished  to  train  and 
accustom  men  to  simplicity  of  life,  so  that  all  their  food 
should  be  easily  procurable,  as  it  would  be.  if  they  ate  only 
such  things  as  required  no  fire  to  dress  them,  and  if  they 
drank  plain  water ;  for  from  this  diet  they  would  derive  health 
of  body  and  acuteness  of  intellect. 


PYTHAGORAS.  273 

The  :/nly  altar  at  which  he  worshipped  was  that  of  Apollo 
the  Father,  at  Delos,  which  is  at  the  back  of  the  altar  of 
Ceratinus,  hecause  wheat,  and  barley,  and  cheese-cakes  are 
the  only  offerings  laid  upon  it,  being  not  dressed  by  fire ;  and 
no  victim  is  ever  slain  there.  They  say,  too,  that  he  was  the 
first  person  who  asserted  that  the  soul  went  a  necessary  circle, 
being  changed  about  and  confined  at  different  times  in  differ- 
ent bodies.  He  was  also  the  first  person  who  introduced 
measures  and  weights  among  the  Greeks.  Parmenides,  too, 
assures  us,  that  he  was  the  first  person  who  asserted  the 
identity  of  Hesperus  and  Lucifer. 

He  was  so  greatly  admired,  that  they  used  to  say  that  his 
friends  looked  on  all  his  sayings  as  the  oracles  of  God.*  And 
he  himself  says  in  his  writings,  that  he  had  come  among  men 
after  having  spent  two  hundred  and  seven  years  in  the  shades 
below.  Therefore  the  Lucanians  and  the  Peucetians,  and  the 
Messapians,  and  the  Romans,  flocked  around  him,  coming 
with  eagerness  to  hear  his  discourses ;  but  until  the  time  of 
Philolaus,  there  were  no  doctrines  of  Pythagoras  ever  di- 
vulged ;  and  he  was  the  first  person  who  published  the  three 
celebrated  books  which  Plato  wrote  to  have  purchased  for  him 
for  a  hundred  minee.  ISTor  were  the  number  of*  his  scholars 
who  used  to  come  to  him  by  night  fewer  than  six  hundred. 
And  if  any  of  them  had  ever  been  permitted  to  see  him,  they 
wrote  of  it  to  their  friends,  as  if  they  had  gained  some  great 
advantage. 

And  the  rest  of  the  Pythagoreans  used  to  say,  according  to 
the  account  given  by  Aristoxenus,  in  the  tenth  book  of  his 
Laws  on  Education,  that  his  precepts  ought  not  to  be  divulged 
to  all  the  world  ;  and  Xenophilus,  the  Pythagorean,  when  he 

*  This  passage  has  been  interpreted  in  more  ways  than  one.  Casaubon 
thinks  with  great  probability  that  there  is  a  hiatus  in  the  text.  I  have  en- 
deavored to  extract  a  meaning  out  of  what  remains.  Compare  Samuel  ii.  16, 
23.  ''And  the  counsel  of  Ahitophel,  which  he  counselled  in  those  days,  was  as 
if  a  man  had  inquired  at  the  oracle  of  God;  so  was  all  the  counsel  of  Ahitophel 
both  with  David  and  with  Absalom." 


274  PYTHAGORAS. 

was  asked  what  was  the  best  way  for  a  man  to  educate  his 
son,  said,  "  That  he  must  first  of  all  take  care  that  he  was 
born  in  a  city  which  enjoyed  good  laws." 

Pythagoras,  too,  formed  many  excellent  men  in  Italy,  by 
his  precepts,  and  among  then?  Zaleucus,*  and  Oharondas,  the 
lawgivers.  For  he  was  very  eminent  for  his  power  of  at- 
tracting friendships ;  and  among  other  things,  if  ever  he 
heard  that  any  one  had  any  community  of  symbols  with  him, 
he  at  once  made  him  a  companion  and  a  friend. 

Now,  what  he  called  his  symbols  were  such  as  these.  "  Do 
not  stir  the  fire  with  a  sword."  "Do  not  sit  down  on  a 
bushel."  "  Do  not  devour  your  heart."  "  Do  not  aid  men 
in  discarding  a  burden,  but  in  increasing  one."  "Always 
have  your  bed  packed  up."  "Do  not  bear  the  image  of  a 
God  on  a  ring."  "  Efface  the  traces  of  a  pot  in  the  ashes." 
"  Do  not  wipe  a  seat  with  a  lamp."  He  also  announced 
the  following :  "  Do  not  walk  in  the  main  street."  Do  not 
offer  your  right  hand  lightly."  "  Do  not  cherish  swallows 
under  your  roof."  "  Do  not  cherish  birds  with  crooked  tal- 
ons." "Do  not  defile  ;  and  do  not  stand  upon  the  parings  of 
your  nails,  or  the  cuttings  of  your  hair."  "  Avoid  a  sharp 
sword."  "When  you  are  travelling  abroad,  look  not  back  at 
your  own  borders."  Now  the  precept  not  to  stir  fire  with  a 

*  Zaleucus  was  the  celebrated  lawgiver  of  the  Epizephyrian  Locrains,  and  is 
said  to  have  been  originally  a  slave  employed  by  a  shepherd,  and  to  have  been  set 
free  and  appointed  lawgiver  by  the  direction  of  an  oracle,  in  consequence  of  his 
announcing  some  excellent  laws,  which  he  represented  Minerva  as  having  com- 
municated to  him  in  a  dream.  Diogenes  is  wrong,  however,  in  calling  him  a 
disciple  of  Pythagoras  (see  Bentley  on  Phalaris),  as  he  lived  about  a  hundred 
years  before  his  time ;  his  true  date  being  ()60  B.C.  The  code  of  Zaleucus  is 
stated  to  have  been  the  first  collection  of  written  laws  that  the  Greeks  possessed. 
Their  character  was  that  of  great  severity.  They  have  not  come  down  to  us. 
His  death  is  said  to  have  occurred  thus.  Among  his  laws  was  one  forbidding 
any  citizen  to  enter  the  senate  house  in  arms,  under  the  penalty  of  death.  But 
in  a  sudden  emergency,  Zaleucus  himself,  in  a  moment  of  forgetfulness,  trans- 
gressed his  own  law:  on  which  he  slew  himself,  declaring  that  he  would  vindi- 
cate his  liw.  (Eustath.  ad.  II.  i.  p.  GO).  Diodorus,  however,  tells  the  same 
story  of  CTiarondas. 


PYTHAGORAS.  275 

sword  meant,  not  to  provoke  the  anger  or  swelling  pride  of 
powerful  men  ;  not  to  violate  the  beam  of  the  balance  meant, 
not  to  transgress  fairness  and  justice ;  not  to  sit  on  a  bushel 
is  to  have  an  equal  care  for  the  present  and  for  the  future,  for 
by  the  bushel  is  meant  one's  daily  food.  By  not  devouring 
one's  heart,  he  intended  to  show  that  we  ou^it  not  to  waste 
away  our  souls  with  grief  and  sorrow.  In  the  precept  that  a 
man  when  travelling  abroad  should  not  turn  his  eyes  back, 
he  recommended  those  who  were  departing  from  life  not  to 
be  desirous  to  live,  and  not  to  be  too  much  attracted  by  the 
pleasures  here  on  earth.  And  the  other  symbols  may  be  ex- 
plained in  a  similar  manner,  that  we  may  not  be  too  prolix 
here. 

And  above  all  things,  he  used  to  prohibit  the  eating  of  the 
ery  thinus,  and  the  melanurus ;  and  also,  he  enjoined  his  dis- 
ciples to  abstain  from  the  hearts  of  animals,  and  from  beans. 
And  Aristotle  informs  us,  that  he  sometimes  used  also  to  add 
to  these  prohibitions  paunches  and  mullet.  And  some 
authors  assert  that  he  himself  used  to  be  contented  with 
honey  and  honeycomb,  and  bread,  and  that  he  never  drank 
wine  in  the  daytime.  And  his  desert  was  usually  vegetables, 
either  boiled  or  raw;  and  he  very  rarely  ate  fish.  His  dress- 
was  white,  very  clean,  and  his  bed-clothes  were  also  white, 
and  woollen,  for  linen  had  not  yet  been  introduced  into  that 
country.  He  was  never  known  to  have  eaten  too  much,  or 
to  have  drunk  to  much,  or  to  indulge  in  the  pleasures  of  love. 
He  abstained  wholly  from  laughter,  and  from  all  such  indul- 
gences as  jests  and  idle  stories.  And  when  he  was  angry, 
he  never  chastised  any  one,  whether  slave  or  freeman.  He 
used  to  call  admonishing,  feeding  storks. 

He  used  to  practice  divination,  as  far  as  auguries  and 
auspices  go,  but  not  by  means  of  burnt  offerings,  except 
only  the  burning  of  frankincense.  And  all  the  sacrifices 
which  he  offered  consisted  of  inanimate  things.  But  some, 
however,  assert  that  he  did  sacrifice  animals,  limiting  himself 


276  PYTHAGORAS. 

to  cocks,  and  sucking  kids,  but  that  he  very  rarely  offered 
lambs.  Aristoxenus,  however,  affirms  that  he  permitted  the 
eating  of  all  other  animals,  and  only  abstained  from  oxen  used 
in  agriculture,  and  from  rams. 

And  Hieronymus  says,  that  when  he  descended  to  the 
shades  below,  he  saw  the  soul  of  Hesoid  bound  to  a  brazen 
pillar,  and  gnashing  its  teeth ;  and  that  of  Homer  suspended 
from  a  tree,  and  snakes  around  it,  as  a  punishment  for  the 
things  that  they  had  said  of  the  Gods.  And  that  those  peo- 
ple also  were  punished  who  refrained  from  commerce  with 
their  wives ;  and  that  on  account  of  this  he  was  greatly  hon- 
ored by  the  people  of  Crotona. 

But  Aristippus,  of  Gyrene,  in  his  Account  of  Natural  Phi- 
losophers, says  that  Pythagoras  derived  his  name  from  the 
fact  of  his  speaking  (agoreueiri)  truth  no  less  than  the  God  at 
Delphi  (tou  putliioii). 

It  is  said  that  he  used  to  admonish  his  disciples  to  repeat 
these  lines  to  themselves  whenever  they  returned  home  to 
their  houses  :  — 

In  what  have  I  transgressed  ?    What  have  I  done  ? 
What  that  I  should  have  done  have  I  omitted? 

And  that  he  used  to  forbid  them  to  offer  victims  to  the  Gods, 
ordering  them  to  worship  only  at  those  altars  which  were  un- 
stained with  blood.  He  forbade  them  also  to  swear  by  the 
Gods;  saying,  " That  every  man  ought  so  to  exercise  him- 
self, as  to  be  worthy  of  belief  without  an  oath"  He  also 
taught  men  that  it  behooved  them  to  honor  their  elders, 
thinking  that  which  was  precedent  in  point  of  time  more 
honorable :  just  as  in  the  world,  the  rising  of  he  sun  was 
more  so  than  the  setting ;  in  life,  the  beginning  more  so  than 
the  end ;  and  in  animals,  production  more  so  than  destruc- 
tion. 

Another  of  his  rules  was  that  men  should  honor  the  Gods 
above  the  daemons,  heroes  above  men  ;  and  of  all  men  parents 


PYTHAGORAS.  277 

were  entitled  to  the  highest  degree  of  reverence.  Another, 
that  people  should  associate  with  one  another  in  such  a  way  as 
not  to  make  their  friends  enemies,  but  to  render  their  enemies 
friends.  Another  was  that  they  should  think  nothing  exclu- 
sively their  own.  Another  was  to  assist  the  law,  and  to  make 
Avar  upon  lawlessness.  Not  to  destroy  or  injure  a  cultivated 
tree,  nor  any  animal  either  which  does  not  injure  men.  That 
modesty  and  decorum  consisted  in  never  yielding  to  laughter, 
and  yet  not  looking  stern.  He  taught  that  men  should  avoid 
too  much  flesh,  that  they  should  in  travelling  let  rest  and  ex- 
ertion alternate;  that  they  should  exercise  memory  ;  that  they 
should  never  say  or  do  anything  in  auger ;  that  they  should 
not  pay  respect  to  every  kind  of  divination  ;  that  they  should 
use  songs  set  to  the  lyre  ;  and  by  hymns  to  the  Gods  and  to 
eminent  men,  display  a  reasonable  gratitude  to  them. 

He  also  forbade  his  disciples  to  eat  beans,  because,  as  they 
were  flatulent,  they  greatly  partook  of  animal  properties  [he 
also  said  that  men  kept  their  stomachs  in  better  order  by 
avoiding  them] ;  and  that  such  abstinence  made  the  visions 
which  appear  in  one's  sleep  gentle  and  free  from  agitation. 

He  also  taught  that  the  sun  and  the  moon,  and  the  stars,  were 
all  Gods ;  for  in  them  the  warm  principle  predominates  which  is 
the  cause  of  life.  And  that  the  moon  derives  its  light  from 
the  sun.  And  that  there  is  a  relationship  between  men  and 
the  Gods,  because  men  partake  of  the  divine  principle :  on 
which  account  also,  God  exercises  his  providence  for  our  ad- 
vantage. Also,  that  fate  is  the  cause  of  the  arrangement  of 
the  world  both  generally  and  particularly.  And  that  the  soul 
is  a  something  torn  off  from  the  aather,  both  warm  and  cold, 
from  its  partaking  of  the  cold  aether.  And  that  the  soul  is 
something  different  from  life.  Also,  that  it  is  immortal,  be- 
cause that  from  which  it  has  been  detached  is  immortal. 

Also,  that  animals  are  born  from  one  another  by  seeds,  and 
that  it  is  impossible  for  there  to  be  any  spontaneous  production 
by  the  earth.  And  that  seed  is  a  drop  from  the  brain  which 

24 


278  PYTHAGORAS. 

contains  in  itself  a  warm  vapor;  and  that  when  this  is  ap- 
plied to  the  womb,  it  transmits  virtue,  and  moisture,  and  blood 
from  the  brain,  from  which  flesh,  and  sinews,  and  bones,  and 
hair,  and  the  whole  body  are  produced.  And  from  the  vapour 
is  produced  the  soul,  and  also  sensation. 

And  Aristotle  says,  in  his  treatise  on  Beans,  that  Pythag- 
oras enjoined  his  disciples  to  abstain  from  beans,  either  because 
they  resemble  some  part  of  the  human  body,  or  because  they 
are  like  the  gates  of  hell  (for  tbey  are  the  only  plants  without 
parts) ;  or  because  they  dry  up  other  plants,  or  because  they 
are  representatives  of  universal  nature,  or  because,  they  are 
used  in  elections  in  oligarchical  governments.  He  also  forbade 
his  disciples  to  pick  up  what  fell  from  the  table,  for  the  sake 
of  accustoming  them  not  to  eat  immoderately,  or  else  because 
such  things  belong  to  the  dead. 

But  Aristophanes  says,  that  what  falls  belongs  to  the  heroes ; 
saying,  in  his  Heroes : — 

Never  taste  the  things  which  fall 
From  the  table  on  the  floor. 

He  also  forbade  his  disciples  to  eat  white  poultry,  because  a 
cock  of  that  color  was  saored  to  Month,  and  was  also  a  sup- 
pliant. He  was  also  accounted  a  good  animal ;  *  and  he  was 
sacred  to  the  God  Month,  for  he  indicates  the  time. 

The  Pythagoreans  were  also  forbidden  to  eat  of  all  fish  that 
were  sacred ;  on  the  ground  that  the  same  animals  ought  not 
to  be  served  up  before  both  Gods  and  men,  just  as  the  same 
things  do  not  belong  to  freemen  and  to  slaves.  Now,  white  is 
an  indication  of  a  good  nature,  and  black  of  a  bad  one. 
Another  of  the  precepts  of  Pythagoras  was,  that  men  ought 
not  to  break  bread ;  because  in  ancient  times  friends  used  to 
assemble  around  one  loaf,  as  they  even  now  do  among  the  bar- 
barians. Nor  would  he  allow  men  to  divide  bread  which 
unites  them.  Some  think  that  he  laid  down  this  rule  in  refer- 

*  There  is  a  great  variety  of  suggestions  as  to  the  proper  reading  here.  There 
is  evidently  some  corruption  in  the  text. 


PYTHAGORAS.  279 

ence  to  the  judgment  which  takes  place  in  hell;  some  because 
this  practice  engenders  timidity  in  war.  According  to  others, 
what  is  alluded  to  is  the  Union,  which  presides  over  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  universe. 

Another  of  his  doctrines  was,  that  of  all  solid  figures  the 
sphere  was  the  most  beautiful ;  and  of  all  plane  figures,  the 
circle.  That  old  age  and  all  diminution  were  similar,  and  also 
increase  and  youth  were  identical.  That  health  was  the  per- 
manence of  form,  and  disease  the  destruction  of  it.  Of  salt 
his  opinion  was,  that  it  ought  to  be  set  before  people  as  a 
reminder  of  justice;  for  salt  preserves  everything  which  it 
touches,  and  it  is  composed  of  the  purest  particles  of  water 
and  sea. 

These  are  the  doctrines  which  Alexander  asserts  that  he 
discovered  in  the  Pythagorean  treatises ;  and  Aristotle  gives  a 
similar  account  of  them. 

Timon,  in  his  Silli,  has  not  left  unnoticed  the  dignified  ap- 
pearance of  Pythagoras,  when  he  attacks  him  on  other  points. 
And  his  words  are  these : — 

Pythagoras,  who  often  teaches 
Precepts  of  magic,  and  with  speeches 
Of  long  high-sounding  diction  draws, 
From  gaping  crowds,  a  vain  applause. 

Respecting  his  having  been  different  people  at  different 
times,  Xenophanes  adds  his  evidence  in  an  elegiac  poem  which 
commences  thus : — 

Now  I  will  on  another  subject  touch, 
And  lead  the  way. 

The  passage  in  which  he  mentions  Pythagoras  is  as  fol- 
lows : — 

They  say  that  once,  as  passing  by  he  saw 

A  dog:  severely  beaten,  he  did  pity  him, 

And  spoke  as  follows  to  the  man  who  beat  him : — 

"  Stop  now,  and  beat  him  not ;  since  in  his  body, 

Abides  the  soul  of  a  dear  friend  of  mine, 

Whose  voice  I  recognized  as  he  was  crying." 


280  PYTHAGORAS. 

These  are  the  words  of  Xenophanes. 

Cratinus  also  ridiculed  him  in  his  Pythagorean  Woman ;  but 
in  his  Tarentines,  he  speaks  thus : — 

They  are  accustomed,  if  by  chance  they  see 

A  private  individual  abroad, 

To  try  what  powers  of  argument  he  has, 

How  he  can  speak  and  reason  ;  and  they  bother  him 

With  strange  antithesis  and  forced  conclusions, 

Errors,  comparisons,  and.  magnitudes, 

Till  they  have  filled  and  quite  perplex'd  his  mind. 

And  Innesimachus  says  in  his  Alcmeeon  : — 

As  we  do  sacrifice  to  the  Phoebus  whom 
Pythagoras  worships,  never  eating  aught 
Which  has  the  breath  of  life. 

Austophon  says  in  his  Pythagorean : — 

Jl.    He  said  that  when  he  did  descend  below 

Among  the  shades  in  Hell,  he  there  beheld 

All  men  who  e'er  had  died ;  and  there  he  saw, 

That  the  Pythagoreans  differ'd  much 

From  all  the  rest;  for  that  with  them  alone 

Did  Pluto  deign  to  eat,  much  honoring 

Their  pious  habits. 
B.  He  's  a  civil  God, 

If  he  likes  eating  with  such  dirty  fellows. 

And  again,  in  the  same  play,  he  says  : 

They  eat 

Nothing  but  herbs  and  vegetables,  and  drink 
Pure  water  only.    But  their  lice  are  such, 
Their  cloaks  so  dirty,  and  their  unwash'd  scent 
So  rank,  that  no  one  of  our  younger  men 
Will  for  a  moment  bear  them. 

Pythagoras  died  in  this  manner.  "When  he  was  sitting  with 
some  of  his  companions  in  Milo's  house,  some  one  of  those 
whom  he  did  not  think  worthy  of  admission  into  it,  was  excit- 
ed by  envy  to  set  fire  to  it.  But  some  say  that  the  people  of 
Crotona  themselves  did  this,  being  afraid  lest  he  might  aspire 
to  the  tyranny.  And  that  Pythagoras  was  caught  as  he  was 
trying  to  escape ;  and  coming  to  a  place  full  of  beans,  he  stop- 


PYTHAGORAS.  281 

ped  there,  saying  that  it  was  better  to  be  caught  than  to  tram- 
ple on  the  beans,  and  better  to  be  slain  than  to  speak ;  and  so 
he  was  murdered  by  those  who  were  pursuing  him.  And  in 
this  way,  also,  most  of  his  companions  were  slain;  being  in 
number  abouty  forty;  but  that  a  very  few  did  escape,  among 
whom  were  Archippus,  of  Tarentum,  and  Lysis,  whom  I  have 
mentioned  before. 

But  Diceearchus  relates  that  Pythagoras  died  afterwards, 
having  escaped  as  far  as  the  temple  of  the  Muses,  at  Metapon- 
tum,  and  that  he  died  there  of  starvation,  having  abstained 
from  food  for  forty  days.  And  Heraclides  says,  in  his  abridg- 
ment of  the  life  of  Satyrus,  that  after  he  had  buried  Pherecy- 
des  in  Delos,  he  returned  to  Italy,  and  finding  there  a  superb 
banquet  prepared  at  the  house  of  Milo,  of  Crotona,  he  left 
Crotona,  and  went  to  Metapontum,  and  there  put  an  end  to  his 
life  by  starvation,  not  wishing  to  live  any  longer.  But  Her- 
mippus  says,  that  when  there  was  war  between  the  people  of 
Agrigentum  and  the  Syracusans,  Pythagoras  went  out  with 
his  usual  companions,  and  took  the  part  of  the  Agrigentiues ; 
and  as  they  were  put  to  flight,  he  ran  all  round  a  field  of  beans, 
instead  of  crossing  it,  and  so  was  slain  by  the  Syracusans ;  and 
that  the  rest,  being  about  five-and-thirty  in  number,  were 
burnt  at  Tarentum,  when  they  were  trying  to  excite  a  sedition 
in  the  state  against  the  principal  magistrates. 

Hennippus  also  relates  another  story  about  Pythagoras. 
For  he  says  that  when  he  was  in  Italy,  he  made  a  subterra- 
neous apartment,  and  charged  his  mother  to  write  an  account 
of  everything  that  took  place,  marking  the  time  of  each  on  a 
tablet,  and  then  to  send  them  down  to  him,  until  he  came  up 
again ;  and  that  his  mother  did  so ;  and  that  Pythagoras  came 
up  again  after  a  certain  time,  lean,  and  reduced  to  a  skeleton  ; 
and  that  he  came  into  the  public  assembly,  and  said  that  he 
had  arrived  from  the  shades  below,  and  then  he  recited  to 
them  all  that  had  happened  during  his  absence.  And  they, 
being  charmed  by  what  he  told  them,  wept  and  lamented, 

24* 


282  PYTHAGORAS. 

and  believed  that  Pythagoras  was  a  divine  being ;  so  that 
they  even  entrusted  their  wives  to  him,  as  likely  to  learn 
some  good  from  him ;  and  that  they  too  were  called  Pythago- 
reans. This  is  the  story  of  Hermippus. 

And  Pythagoras  had  a  wife,  whose  name  was  Theano ; 
the  daughter  of  Brontinus,  of  Orotona.  But  some  say  that 
she  was  the  wife  of  Brontinus,  and  only  a  pupil  of  Pythag- 
oras. And  he  had  a  daughter  named  Daino,  as  Lysis  mentions 
in  his  letter  to  Hipparchus ;  where  he  speaks  thus  of  Pythag- 
oras :  "  And  many  say  that  you  philosophize  in  public,  as  Py- 
thagoras also  used  to  do ;  who,  when  he  had  entrusted  his 
Commentaries  to  Damo,  his  daughter,  charged  her  to  divulge 
them  to  no  person  out  of  the  house.  And  she,  though  she 
might  have  sold  his  discourses  for  much  money,  would  not 
abandon  them,  for  she  thought  poverty  and  obedience  to  her 
father's  injunctions  more  valuable  than  gold ;  and  that  too, 
though  she  was  a  woman." 

He  had  also  a  son,  named  Telauges,  who  was  the  successor 
of  his  father  in  his  school,  and  who,  according  to  some 
authors,  was  the  teacher  of  Empedocles.  At  least  Hippobo- 
tus  relates  that  Empedocles  said : — 

"  Telauges,  noble  youth,  whom  in  due  time 
Theano  bore  to  wise  Pythagoras." 

But  there  is  no  book  extant,  which  is  the  work  of  Telau- 
ges, though  there  are  some  extant  which  are  attributed  to  his 
mother  Theano.  And  they  tell  a  story  of  her,  that  once, 
when  she  was  asked  how  long  a  woman  ought  to  be  absent 
from  her  husband  to  be  pure,  she  said,  the  moment  she  leaves 
her  own  husband,  she  is  pure  ;  but  she  is  never  pure  at  all, 
after  she  leaves  any  one  else.  And  she  recommended  a  wo- 
man, who  was  going  to  her  husband,  to  put  off  her  modesty 
with  her  clothes,  and  when  she  left  him,  to  resume  it  again 
with  her  clothes ;  and  when  she  was  asked,  "  What  clothes  ?" 
she  said,  "Those  which  cause  you  to  be  called  a  woman." 


PYTHAGORAS.  283 

Now  Pythagoras,  as  Heraclides,  the  son  of  Sarapian,  relates, 
died  when  he  was  eighty  years  of  age,  according  to  his  own 
account  of  his  age,  but  according  to  the  common  account,  he 
was  more  than  ninety.  And  we  have  written  a  sportive  epi- 
gram on  him  which  is  couched  in  the  following  terms  : — 

You  're  not  the  only  man  who  has  abstained 
From  living  food,  for  so  likewise  have  we  ; 
And  who,  I  'd  like  to  know  did  ever  taste 
Food  while  alive,  most  sage  Pythagoras  ? 
When  meat  is  boil'd,  or  roasted  well  and  salted, 
I  don't  think  it  can  well  be  called  living. 
Which,  therefore,  without  scruple  then  we  eat  it, 
And  call  it  no  more  living  flesh,  but  meat. 

And  another,  which  runs  thus : — 

V 

Pythagoras  was  so  wise  a  man,  that  he 

Never  eat  meat  himself,  and  called  it  sin, 
And  yet  he  gave  good  joints  of  beef  to  others 
So  that  I  marvel  at  his  principles ; 
Who  others  wronged,  by  teaching  them  to  do 
What  he  believed  unholy  for  himself. 

And  another  as  follows  : — 

Should  you  Pythagoras'  doctrine  wish  to  know, 
Look  on  the  centre  of  Euphorbus'  shield. 
For  he  asserts  there  lived  a  man  of  old, 
And  when  he  had  no  longer  an  existence, 
He  still  could  say  that  he  had  been  alive, 
Or  else  he  would  not  still  be  living  now. 

And  this  one  too  : — 

Alas  !  alas  !  why  did  Pythagoras  hold 
Beans  in  such  wondrous  honor  ?    Why,  besides, 
Did  he  thus  die  among  his  choice  companions  ? 
There  was  a  field  of  beans  ;  and  so  the  sage 
Died  in  the  common  road  of  Agrigentum, 
Rather  than  trample  down  his  favorite  beans. 

He  flourished  about  the  sixteenth  Olympiad  ;  and  his  system 
lasted  for  nine  or  ten  generations. 

There  were  four  men  of  the  name  of  Pythagoras,  about  the 
same  time,  at  no  great  distance  from  one  another.  But 


284  PYTHAGORAS. 

Eratosthenes  says,  as  Phavorinus  quotes  him,  in  the  eighth 
book  of  his  Universal  History,  that  this  philosopher,  of  whom 
we  are  speaking,  was  the  first  man  who  ever  practiced  boxing 
in  a  scientific  manner,  in  the  forty-eighth  Olympiad,  having  his 
hair  long,  and  being  clothed  in  a  purple  robe ,  and  that  he 
was  rejected  from  the  competition  among  boys,  and  being 
ridiculed  for  his  application,  he  immediately  entered  among 
the  men,  and  came  off  victorious.  And  this  statement  is  con- 
firmed among  other  things,  by  the  epigram  which  Thesetetus 
composed : — 

Stranger,  if  e'er  you  knew  Pythagoras, 
Pythagoras  the  man  with  flowing  hair, 
The  celebrated  boxer,  erst  of  Saraos ; 
I  am  Pythagoras.    And  if  you  ask 
A  citizen  of  Elis  of  my  deeds, 
You  '11  surely  think  he  is  relating  fables. 

Phavorinus  says,  that  he  employed  definitions,  on  account 
of  the  mathematical  subjects  to  which  he  applied  himself. 
And  that  Socrates  and  those  who  were  his  pupils,  did  so  still 
more ;  and  that  they  were  subsequently  followed  in  this  by 
Aristotle  and  the  Stoics. 

He,  too,  was  the  first  person  who  ever  gave  the  name  of 
Icosmos  to  the  universe,  and  the  first  who  called  the  earth 
round ;  though  Theophrastus  attributes  this  to  Parmenides, 
and  Zeno  to  Hesiod.  They  say,  too,  that  Oylon  used  to  be  a 
constant  adversary  of  his,  as  Antidicus  was  of  Socrates.  And 
this  epigram  also  used  to  be  repeated,  concerning  Pythagoras 
the  athlete : — 

Pythagoras  of  Samos,  son  of  Crates, 
Came  while  a  child  to  the  Olympic  games, 
Eager  to  battle  for  the  prize  in  boxing. 

Brucker  says  that  the  history  of  Pythagoras,  beyond  that  of 
any  other  ancient  philosopher,  abounds  with  difficulties  and  con- 
tradictions, and  is  enveloped  in  fable  and  mystery.  Pythagoras 
himself,  and  his  followers  through  a  long  succession,  were  so  far 
from  committing  their  doctrines  to  writing,  for  the  information 


PYTHAGORAS.  285 

of  posterity,  that  they  made  use  of  every  expedient  to  conceal 
them  from  their  contemporaries.  Hence  the  first  records  of 
the  life  and  doctrines  of  this  philosopher,  which  were  only 
such  as  could  be  casually  gathered  up  from  tradition,  were  not 
less  defective  in  probable  and  well-authenticated  facts  than 
they  were  abundant  in  absurd  fictions.  It  was  not  till  many 
ages  after  the  time  in  which  Pythagoras  flourished  that  Porphyry 
and  Jamblicus  undertook  to  digest  these  scattered  materials  into 
a  regular  narrative.  And  these  writers  themselves  were  too 
credulous,  too  careless,  and  too  much  biased  by  prejudice,  to 
to  be  capable  of  giving  a  judicious  and  impartial  representa- 
tion of  what  was  at  that  time  known  concerning  Pythagoras. 
They  were  of  the  school  of  Ammonius  and  Plotinus  ;  in  which, 
as  we  shall  afterwards  find,  it  was  the  common  practice  to 
misrepresent  and  falsify  everything,  and  to  obtrude  upon  the 
world  marvellous  tales,  instead  of  real  facts,  for  the  sake  of 
supporting  the  credit  of  their  sect  in  opposition  to  Christian- 
ity. It  follows,  that  the  statements  which  are  made  concern- 
ing him, .must  be  received  with  considerable  allowance.  He 
further  says :  Pythagoras,  returning  from  Egypt  to  his  native 
island,  after  an  absence  of  more  than  twenty  years,  was  de- 
sirous that  his  fellow-citizens  should  reap  the  benefit  of  his 
travels  and  studies,  and  for  this  purpose  attempted  to  institute 
a  school  for  their  instruction  in  the  elements  of  science,  but 
chose  to  adopt  the  Egyptian  method  of  teaching,  and  com- 
municate his  doctrines  under  a  symbolical  form.  The  Samians 
were  either  too  indolent,  or  too  stupid,  to  profit  by  his  in- 
structions. The  number  of  his  followers  was  so  inconsiderable, 
that  he  was  obliged  for  the  present  to  relinquish  his  design. 
Loath,  however,  entirely  to  abandon  the  project,  he  determined, 
if  possible,  to  find  other  means  of  engaging  the  attention  of 
Ms  countrymen.  TVith  this  idea  he  repaired  to  Delos,  and 
after  presenting  an  offering  of  cakes  to  Apollo,  then  received, 
or  pretended  to  receive,  moral  dogmas  from  the  priestess, 
which  he  afterwards  delivered  to  his  disciples  under  the  char- 


286  PYTHAGORAS. 

acter  of  divine  precepts.  With  the  same  design  he  also  visited 
the  island  of  Crete,  so  celebrated  in  mythological  history, 
where  he  was  conducted  by  the  Oorybantes,  or  priests  of 
Cybele,  into  the  cave  of  Mount  Ida,  in  which  Jupiter  is  said 
to  have  been  buried.  Here  he  conversed  with  Epiraenides, 
an  eminent  pretender  to  prophetic  powers,  and  was  by  him 
initiated  into  the  most  sacred  mysteries  of  Greece.  About 
the  same  time  he  visited  Sparta  and  Elis,  and  .was  present 
during  the  celebration  of  the  Olympic  games,  where  he  is  said 
to  have  exhibited  a  golden  thigh  to  Abaris,  in  order  to  con- 
vince him  that  he  was  Apollo.  Amongst  the  places  which  he 
visited  during  his  stay  in  Greece,  was  Phlius,  the  residence  of 
Leon,  king  of  the  Phliasians.  Here  he  first  assumed  the  ap- 
pellation of  philosopher. 

Thus  furnished,  not  only  with  fresh  stores  of  learning,  but 
with  a  kind  of  authority  which  was  still  more  liikely  to  pro- 
cure him  respect,  he  returned  to  Samos,  and  made  a  second 
more  successful  attempt  to  institute  among  his  countrymen  a 
school  of  philosophy.  The  place  which  he  chose  for  his- 
purpose  was  a  semi-circular  building,  in  which  the  Samians 
had  been  accustomed  to  meet  for  public  business.  Here  he 
chiefly  employed  himself  in  delivering,  with  an  air  of  sacred 
authority,  popular  precepts  of  morality,  which  might  con- 
tribute to  the  general  benefit  of  the  people.  Besides  this,  he 
provided  himself  with  a  secret  cave,  into  which  he  retired 
with  his  intimate  friends  and  professed  disciples,  and  here,  not 
without  a  wonderful  parade  of  mystery,  gave  them  daily  in- 
structions in  the  more  abstruse  parts  of  philosophy.  These 
arts,  which  unquestionably  rank  this  celebrated  philosopher 
among  impostors,  proved  successful,  and  procured  him  a  great 
multitude  of  followers.  What  he  had  been  unable  to  eifect 
by  the  mere  force  of  learning  and  ability,  he  soon  accom- 
plished by  concealing  his  doctrines  under  the  veil  of  mysterious 
symbols,  and  by  issuing  forth  his  precepts  as  responses  from  a 
divine  oracle. 


PYTHAGOHAS.  287 

Having  for  some  time  successfully  executed  his  plan  of  in- 
struction in  Sainos,  whether  the  Samiaiis  began  to  detect  his 
frauds,  or  to  be  apprehensive  of  his  increasing  popularity,  or 
whether  Pythagoras  wished  to  escape  the  tyranny  of  the  gov- 
ernor, Syloson,  the  brother  of  Polycrates,  he  suddenly  left 
Sanios,  and  passing  over  into  Italy,  attempted  to  establish  his 
school  among  the  colonies  of  Magna  Gratia.  The  time  of  this 
expedition  is  uncertain ;  but  it  seems  most  probable  that  it 
happened  about  the  beginning  of  the  fifty-ninth  Olympiad.  It 
is  more  certain  that  when  Pythagoras  arrived  in  this  country, 
in  order  to  obtain  credit  with  the  populace,  he  pretended  to  a 
power  of  performing  miracles,  and  practiced  many  arts  of  im- 
posture. 

The  first  place  at  which  Pythagoras  arrived  was  Crotona,  & 
city  in  the  bay  of  Tarentum,  whose  inhabitants  were  at  this 
time  exceedingly  corrupted  in  their  manners.  Upon  his  first 
arrival,  Plutarch  and  Apuleius  relate,  that  observing  a  large 
draught  of  fishes,  which  had  just  been  taken,  he  bought  the 
whole  capture  of  the  fishermen,  and  ordered  them  to  throw 
them  again  into  the  water,  as  a  lesson  to  the  spectators  to 
spare  the  lives  of  fishes,  and  to  refrain  from  this,  as  well  as 
every  other  kind  of  animal  food.  Porphyry  and  Jamblicus 
relate  the  same  story,  with  the  addition  of  this  marvellous 
circumstance,  that  Pythagoras,  while  the  fishermen  were  draw- 
ing up  the  net,  told  them  the  exact  number  of  fishes  which  it- 
contained. 

By  these  and  other  arts,  Pythagoras  obtained  such  a  degree 
of  respect  and  influence  in  Crotona,  that  people  of  all  classes 
assembled  to  hear  his  discourses.  The  effect  was,  that  an  en- 
tire change  was  produced  in  the  manners  of  the  citizens ;  so 
that,  from  great  luxury  and  licentiousness,  they  were  convert- 
ed to  strict  sobriety  and  frugality  of  manners.  It  is  asserted 
that  in  Crotona  there  were  not  less  than  six  hundred  persons 
(some  say  two  thousand)  who  were  prevailed  upon  to  submit 
to  the  strict  discipline  which  he  required,  and  to  throw  their 


288  PYTHAGORAS. 

effects  into  a  common  stock  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  frater- 
nity. 

Pythagoras  did  not  confine  the  influence  of  his  philosophy 
to  Crotona.  He  taught  his  doctrine  in  many  other  cities  of 
Magna  Groecia  with  so  much  energy  and  effect,  that  he  es- 
tablished a  large  and  extensive  interest  through  the  country, 
and  obtained  from  his  followers  a  degree  of  respect  little 
short  of  adoration. 

Had  Pythagoras  contented  himself  with  issuing  forth  orac- 
ular precepts  of  wisdom,  and  instructing  his  select  disciples  in 
the  speculative  doctrines  of  philosophy,  it  is  probable  he  might 
have  continued  his  labors,  without  molestation,  to  the  end  of 
his  life.  But  he  discovered  on  many  occasions  a  strong  pro- 
pensity towards  political  innovations.  Not  only  at  Crotona, 
but  at  Metapontus,  Rhegiurn,  Agrigentum,  and  many  other 
places,  he  obtained  great  influence  over  the  people,  and  em- 
ployed it  in  urging  them  to  the  strenuous  assertion  of  their 
rights  against  the  encroachments  of  their  tyrannical  gov- 
ernors. 

These  attempts,  together  with  the  singularities  of  his  school, 
excited  a  general  spirit  of  jealousy,  and  raised  a  powerful  op- 
position against  him.  At  the  head  of  this  opposition  was  Cylo, 
a  man  of  wealth  and  distinction  in  Crotona,  who  had  been  re- 
fused admission  into  the  society  of  the  Pythagoreans,  and 
whose  temper  was  too  haughty  and  violent  to  endure  with 
patience  such  an  indignity.  The  party  thus  raised  against  the 
Pythagoreans  hearing  that  they  were  assembled  in  a  large 
body  at  the  house  of  Milo,  one  of  their  chief  friends,  surround- 
ed the  house,'  and  set  it  on  fire.  About  forty  persons  perished 
in  the  flames.  Archippus  and  Lysis,  two  natives  of  Tarenturn, 
alone  escaped  :  the  former  withdrew  to  his  own  city ;  the  lat- 
ter fled  to  Thebes. 

Pythagoras  himself,  if  he  was  not  present  at  the  assembly, 
was  probably  in  Crotona  at  the  time  when  this  fatal  attack 
was  made  upon  his  school ;  for  the  report  of  his  having  been 


PYTHAGORAS.  289 

then  upon  a  journey  to  Delos,  to  visit  Ms  master  Pherecydes, 
is  inconsistent  with  chronology,  that  philosopher  having  died 
before  Pythagoras  left  Samos.  He  was,  however,  wholly  in- 
capable of  resisting  the  torrent  of  jealousy  and  enmity  which 
rushed  upon  him.  His  remaining  friends  fled  to  Rhegiurn, 
and  he  was  himself  obliged  to  retire  to  Metapontum,  after 
having  in  vain  sought  for  protection  from  the  Locrians.  At 
Metapontum  Pythagoras  found  himself  still  surrounded  with 
enemies,  and  was  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  the  temple  of  the 
Muses,  where,  not  being  able  to  procure  from  his  friends  the 
necessary  supply  of  food,  he  perished  with  hunger.  This  is 
the  most  probable  account  we  are  able  to  collect  of  the  last 
incidents  in  the  life  of  Pythagoras.  The  time  of  his  death  is 
uncertain.  According  to  the  Chronicon  of  Eusebius,  which 
we  are  inclined  to  follow,  he  died  in  the  third  year  of  the 
sixty-eight  Olympiad,  after  having  lived,  according  to  the 
most  probable  statement  of  his  birth,  to  the  age  of  eighty 
years.  After  his  death  his  disciples  paid  a  superstitious  re- 
spect to  his  memory,  They  erected  statues  in  honor  of  him, 
converted  his  house  in  Crotona  into  a  temple  of  Ceres,  and  ap- 
pealed to  him  as  a  divinity,  swearing  by  his  name. 

Many  tales  are  related  of  Pythagoras,  which  carry  with  them 
their  OAvn  refutation.  That,  by  speaking  a  word,  he  tamed  a 
Daunian  bear  which  had  laid  waste  the  country  ;  that  he  pre- 
vented an  ox  from  eating  beans,  by  whispering  in  his  ear ;  that 
he  called  down  an  eagle  from  the  sky ;  that  he  was,  on  the 
same  day,  present,  and  discoursed  in  public,  at  Metapontum  in 
Italy,  and  at  Tauromenium  in  Sicily ;  that  he  predicted  earth- 
quakes, storms,  and  other  future  events ;  and  that  a  river,  as 
he  passed  over  it  with  his  friends,  cried  out,  Hail,  Pythagoras ! 
are  wonders,  which  would  require  much  clearer  and  better 
evidence  to  gain  them  credit,  than  the  testimony  of  Apollo- 
nius,  Porphyry,  and  Jamblicus,  or  even  of  Laertius  and  Pliny. 
It  appears,  upon  the  face  of  the  history  of  this  philosopher, 
that  he  owed  much  of  his  celebrity  and  authority  toimpr.-- 

25 


290  PYTHAGORAS. 

ture.  Why  did  he  so  studiously  court  the  society  of  Egyptian 
priests,  so  famous  in  ancient  times  for  their  arts  of  deception? 
why  did  he  take  so  much  pains  to  be  initiated  in  religious 
mysteries  ?  why  did  he  retire  into  a  subterraneous  cavern  in 
Crete?  why  did  he  assume  the  character  of  Apollo,  at  the 
Olympic  games?  why  did  he  boast  that  his  soul  had  lived  in 
former  bodies,  and  that  he  had  been  first  ^Ethalidesthe  son  of 
Mercury,  then  Euphorbus,  then  Pyrrhus  of  Delos,  and  at  last 
Pythagoras,  but  that  he  might  the  more  easily  impose  upon 
the  credulity  of  an  ignorant  and  superstitious  people?  His 
whole  manner  of  life,  as  far  as  it  is  known,  confirms  this  opin- 
ion. Clothed  in  a  long  white  robe,  with  a  flowing  beard,  and, 
as  some  relate,  with  a  golden  crown  on  his  head,  he  preserved 
among  the  people,  and  in  the  presence  of  his  disciples,  a  com- 
manding gravity  and  majesty  of  aspect.  He  made  use  of 
music  to  promote  the  tranquillity  of  his  mind,  frequently  sing- 
ing, for  this  purpose,  hymns  of  Thales,  Hesiod,  and  Homer. 
He  had  such  an  entire  command  of  himself,  that  he  was  never 
seen  to  express,  in  his  countenance,  grief,  or  joy,  or  anger. 
He  refrained  from  animal  food,  and  confined  himself  to  a  frugal 
vegetable  diet,  excluding  from  his  simple  bill  of  fare,  for  sun- 
dry mystical  reasons,  pulse  or  beans  By  this  artificial  de- 
meanor, Pythagoras  passed  himself  upon  the  vulgar  as  a 
being  of  an  order  superior  tc  the  common  condition  of  hu- 
manity, and  persuaded  them  that  he  had  received  his  doctrine 
from  heaven. 

Pythagoras  married  Theano  of  Crotona,  or,  as  some  relate, 
of  Crete,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons,  Telauges  and  Mnesar- 
chus,  who,  after  his  death,  took  the  charge  of  his  school. 

Whether  Pythagoras  left  behind  him  any  writings,  is  a 
point  much  disputed.  Laertius  enumerates  many  pieces 
which  appeared  under  his  name ;  and  Jamblicus  and  Pliny 
increase  the  list.  But  Plutarch,  Joseph  us,  Lucian,  and  others, 
confess  that  there  were  no  genuine  works  of  Pythagoras  ex- 
tant ;  and,  from  the  pains  which  Pythagoras  took  to  confine 


PYTHAGORAS.  291 

his  doctrine  to  his  own  school  during  his  life,  it  appears 
highly  probable  that  he  never  committed  his  philosophical 
system  to  writing,  and  that  those  pieces  to  which  his  name 
was  early  affixed  were  written  by  some  of  his  followers,  ac- 
cording to  the  principles  and  tenets  which  they  had  learned 
in  his  school.  Among  the  pieces  attributed  to  Pythagoras, 
no  one  is  more  famous  than  the  Golden  Verses,  which  Hiero- 
cles  has  illustrated  with  a  Commentary.  It  is  generally  be- 
lieved that  they  were  not  written  by  Pythagoras :  perhaps 
they  are  to  be  ascribed  to  Epicharmus,  or  Empedocles. 
They  may  be  considered  as  a  brief  summary  of  his  popular 
doctrines. 

The  method  of  instruction  adopted  by  Pythagoras  was 
twofold,  exoteric  and  esoteric,  or  public  and  private.  This 
distinction  he  had  seen  introduced  with  great  advantage  by 
the  Egyptian  priests,  who  found  it  admirably  adapted  to 
strengthen  their  authority,  and  increase  their  emolument. 
He  therefore  determined  as  far  as  circumstances  would  ad- 
mit, to  form  his  school  upon  the  Egyptian  model.  For  the 
general  benefit  of  the  people,  he  held  public  assemblies,  in 
which  he  delivered  discourses  in  praise  of  virtue,  and  against 
vice ;  and  in  these  he  gave  particular  instructions,  in  different 
classes,  to  husbands  and  wives,  parents  and  children,  and 
others  who  filled  the  several  relations  of  society.  The  audi- 
tors who  attended  these  public  lectures  did  not  properly  be- 
long to  his  school,  but  continued  to  follow  their  usual  mode 
of  living.  Besides  these  he  had  a  select  body  of  disciples 
whom  he  called  his  companions  and  friends,  who  submitted 
to  a  peculiar  plan  of  discipline,  and  were  admitted  by  a  long 
course  of  instruction  into  all  th*  mysteries  of  his  esoteric  doc- 
trine. 

Before  any  one  could  be  admitted  into  this  fraternity  Py- 
thagoras examined  his  features  and  external  appearance ;  in- 
quired in  what  manner  he  had  been  accustomed  to  behave 
towards  his  parents  and  friends ;  remarked  his  manner  of 


292  PYTHAGORAS. 

conversing,  laughing,  and  keeping  silence ;  and  observed 
what  passions  he  was  most  inclined  to  indulge,  with  what 
kind  of  company  he  chose  to  associate,  how  he  passed  his 
leisure  moments,  and  what  incidents  appeared  to  excite  in 
him  the  strongest  emotions  of  joy  or  sorrow.  From  these  and 
other  circumstances,  Pythagoras  formed  an  accurate  judg- 
ment of  the  qualifications  of  the  candidate ;  and  he  admitted 
no  one  into  his  society  till  he  was  fully  persuaded  of  the  do- 
cility of  his  dispositions,  the  gentleness  of  his  manners,  his 
power  of  retaining  in  silence  what  he  was  taught,  and,  in 
fine,  his  capacity  of  becoming  a  true  philosopher. 

Upon  the  first  probationary  admission,  the  fortitude  and 
self-command  of  the  candidate  was  put  to  the  trial  by  a  long 
course  of  severe  abstinence  and  rigorous  exercise.  In  order 
to  subdue  every  inclination  towards  luxurious  enjoyment, 
Pythagoras  accustomed  those  who  were  admitted  to  this  in- 
itiatory discipline  to  abstain  from  animal  food,  except  the  re- 
mains of  the  sacrifices,  and  to  drink  nothing  but  water,  unless 
in  the  evening,  when  they  were  allowed  a  small  portion  of 
wine.  That  he  might  effectually  inure  them  to  self-denial, 
he  sometimes  ordered  a  table  richly  covered  with  dainties  to 
be  spread  before  them,  and,  when  they  were  impatiently  ex- 
pecting to  gratify  their  appetites,  commanded  the  whole  en- 
tertainment to  be  taken  away,  and  dismissed  them  without 
any  refreshment.  He  suffered  them  to  wear  no  other  gar- 
ments but  such  as  were  suited  to  express  the  utmost  pu- 
rity and  simplicity  of  manners.  Of  sleep  he  required  them  to 
be  exceedingly  frugal ;  and,  in  short,  indulged  them  in  no- 
thing which  could  be  supposed  to  inflame  their  passions,  or 
cherish  voluptuous  desires.  To  correct  an  effeminate  dread 
of  labor  or  suffering,  he  prescribed  them  exercises  which 
could  not  be  performed  without  pain  and  fatigue.  To  teach 
them  humility  and  industry,  he  exposed  them,  for  three  years, 
to  a  continued  course  of  contradiction,  ridicule,  and  contempt, 
among  their  fellows.  The  powerful  passion  of  avarice  be  op- 


PYTHAGORAS.  293 

posed,  by  requiring  his  disciples  to  submit  to  voluntary  pov- 
erty. He  riot  cnly  taught  them  to  be  contented  with  a  little, 
but  even  deprived  them  of  all  command  over  their  own  prop- 
erty, by  casting  the  possessions  of  each  individual  into  a  com- 
mon stock,  to  be  distributed  by  proper  officers,  as  occasion 
should  require.  From  the  time  of  this  sequestration  of  their 
goods,  as  long  as  they  continued  members  of  this  society,  they 
lived  upon  the  footing  of  perfect  equality,  and  sat  down 
together  daily  at  a  common  table.  If  any  one,  however,  re- 
pented of  the  connection,  he  was  at  liberty  to  depart,  and 
might  reclaim,  from  the  general  fund,  his  whole  contribu- 
tion. 

That  he  might  give  his  disciples  a  habit  of  entire  docility, 
Pythagoras  also  enjoined  upon  them,  from  their  first  admiss- 
ion, a  long  term  of  silence  called  echemutMa,  i.  e.,  silence,  or 
taciturnity.  This  exoteric  silence  is  not  to  be  confounded 
with  that  sacred  reserve,  with  which  all  the  disciples  of  Py- 
thagoras were  bound,  upon  oath,  to  receive  the  doctrines  of 
their  master,  that  they  might,  from  no  inducement  whatever, 
suffer  them  to  pass  beyond  the  limits  of  the  sect.  The  initia- 
tory silence  probably  consisted  in  refraining  from  speech,  not 
only  during  the  hours  of  instruction,  but  through  the  Avhole 
term  of  initiation.  It  continued  from  two  to  five  years,  ac- 
cording to  the  degree  of  propensity  which  the  pupil  discov- 
ered towards  conceit  and  loquacity.  The  restraint  which 
Pythagoras  thus  put  upon  the  "  winged  words"  of  his  pu- 
pils, might  possibly  be  of  great  use  to  them  ;  it  was  certainly 
a  judicious  expedient  with  respect  to  himself,  as  it  restrained 
impertinent  curiosity,  and  prevented  every  inconvenience  of 
contradiction.  Accordingly,  we  find  that  his  disciples  silenced 
all  doubts,  and  refuted  all  objections,  by  appealing  to  his 
authority.  Ipse  dixit,  decided  every  dispute.  Nor  was 
this  preparatory  discipline  deemed  sufficiently  severe,  without 
adding,  during  the  years  of  initiation,  an  entire  prohibition  of 
seeing  their  master,  or  hearing  his  lectures,  except  from  be- 

25* 


294  P  Y  T  H 


AGOR  AS. 


hind  a  curtain.  And  even  this  privilege  was  too  great  to  be 
commonly  allowed ;  for  in  this  stage  of  tuition  they  were 
usually  instructed  by  some  inferior  preceptor,  who  barely  re- 
cited the  doctrines  of  Pythagoras,  without  assigning  the  rea- 
sonings or  demonstrations  upon  which  they  were  grounded, 
and  required  the  obedient  pupil  to  receive  them  as  unques- 
tionable truths,  upon  their  master's  word.  Those  who  had 
sufficient  perseverance  to  pass  these  several  steps  of  probation 
were  at  last  admitted  among  the  esoterics,  and  allowed  to 
hear  and  see  Pythagoras  behind  the  curtain.  But  if  it  hap- 
pened that  any  one,  through  impatience  of  such  rigid  disci- 
pline, chose  to  withdraw  from  the  society  before  the  expira- 
tion of  his  term  of  trial,  he  was  dismissed  with  a  share  of 
the  common  stock,  the  double  of  that  which  he  had  ad- 
vanced ;  a  tomb  was  erected  for  him  as  for  a  dead  man,  and 
he  was  to  be  as  much  forgotten  by  the  brethren  as  if  he  had 
been  actually  dead. 

It  was  the  peculiar  privilege  of  the  members  of  the  esoteric 
school  (who  were  called  genuine  disciples)  to  receive  a  full 
explanation  of  the  whole  doctrine  of  Pythagoras,  which  to 
others  was  delivered  in  brief  precepts  and  dogmas,  under  the 
concealment  of  symbols.  They  were  also  permitted  to  take 
minutes  of  their  master's  lectures  in  writing,  and  to  propose 
questions,  and  offer  remarks  upon  every  subject  of  discourse. 
These  disciples  were  particularly  distinguished  by  the  appella- 
,  tion  of  the  Pythagoreans ;  they  were  also  called  Mathema- 
ticians, from  the  studies  upon  which  they  entered  immediately 
after  their  initiation.  After  they  had  made  a  sufficient  pro- 
gress in  geometrical  science,  they  were  conducted  to  the  study 
of  nature,  the  investigation  of  primary  principles,  and  the 
knowledge  of  God.  Those  who  pursued  these  sublime  specu- 
lations were  called  Theorists ;  and  such  as  more  particularly 
devoted  themselves  to  theology  were  styled  Keligious.  Others, 
according  to  their  respective  abilities  and  inclinations,  were 
engaged  in  the  study  of  Morals,  (Economics  and  Policy ;  and 


PYTHAGORAS.  295 

were  afterwards  employed  in  managing  the  affairs  of  the 
fraternity,  or  sent  into  the  cities  of  Greece,  to  instruct  them 
in  the  principles  of  government,  or  assist  them  in  the  institu- 
tion of  laws. 

The  brethren  of  the  Pythagorean  college  at  Crotona,  who 
were  about  six  hundred  in  number,  lived  together,  as  one 
family,  with  their  wives  and  children,  in  a  public  build- 
ing called  the  common  auditory.  The  whole  business  of  the 
society  was  conducted  with  the  most  perfect  regularity. 
Every  day  was  begun  with  a  distinct  deliberation  upon  the 
manner  in  which  it  should  be  spent,  and  concluded  with  a 
careful  retrospect  of  the  events  which  had  occurred,  and  the 
business  which  had  been  transacted.  They  rose  before  the 
sun,  that  they  might  pay  him  homage,  after  which  they  re- 
peated select  verses  from  Homer,  and  other  poets,  and  made 
use  of  music,  both  vocal  and  instrumental,  to  enliven  their 
spirits  and  fit  them  for  the  duties  of  the  day.  They  then  em- 
ployed several  hours  in  the  study  of  science.  These  were 
succeeded  by  an  interval  of  leisure,  which  was  commonly 
spent  in  a  solitary  walk  for  the  purpose  of  contemplation. 
The  next  portion  of  the  day  was  allotted  to  conversation. 
The  hour  immediately  before  dinner  was  filled  up  with  vari- 
ous kinds  of  athletic  exercises.  Their  dinner  consisted  chiefly 
of  bread,  honey,  and  water  ;  for,  after  they  were  perfectly 
initiated,  they  wholly  denied  themselves  the  use  of  wine. 
The  remainder  of  the  day  was  devoted  to  civil  and  domestic 
affairs,  conversation,  bathing,  and  religious  ceremonies. 

The  exoteric  disciples  of  Pythagoras  were  taught  after  the 
Egyptian  manner  by  images  and  symbols,  which  must  have 
been  exceedingly  obscure  to  those  who  were  not  initiated  into 
the  mysteries  of  the  school.  And  they  who  were  admitted 
to  this  privilege  were  trained  from  their  first  admission,  to  ob- 
serve invariable  silence  with  respect  to  the  recondite  doctrines 
of  their  master.  That  the  wisdom  of  Pythagoras  might  not 
pass  into  the  ears  of  the  vulgar,  they  committed  it  chiefly  to 


296  QUINTIUS      TUBBRO. SENECA. 

memory,  and  where  they  found  it  necessary  to  make  use  of 
•writing,  they  were  careful  not  to  suffer  their  minutes  to  pass 

V>p\rrmrl   fVip  limit's  nf  flip,  sp.linol 


beyond  the  limits  of  the  school. 


QUINTIUS   TUBERO. 

QUINTIUS  TUBEEO,  a  nephew  of  Scipio  Africanus,  who  was 
one  of  the  most  celebrated  masters  of  civil  law,  was  also  con- 
versant with  philosophical  learning,  and  professed  himself  a 
follower  of  the  Stoic  sect.  The  moral  doctrine  of  this  sect 
was  peculiarly  suitable  to  his  natural  temper,  and  to  the  habits 
of  temperance  and  moderation  which  he  had  learned  from  his 
father,  one  of  those  excellent  Romans,  who,  in  the  highest 
offices  of  the  State,  retained  the  simplicity  of  rustic  manners. 
Confirmed  in  these  habits  by  the  precepts  of  Panaetius,  when 
Tubero  was  called  upon,  as  pretor,  to  give  a  public  entertain- 
ment in  honor  of  his  uncle,  he  provided  only  wooden  couches 
covered  with  goat  skins,  earthen  vessels,  and  a  frugal  repast. 
The  people,  who  expected  a  splendid  feast,  were  dissatisfied, 
and  dismissed  him  from  his  office :  but  the  action  reflected  no 
discredit  either  upon  the  lawyer  or  the  philosopher ;  for  it 
was,  as  Seneca  remarks,  an  instructive  lesson  of  moderation 
to  the  Romans,  who,  when  they  saw  the  sacred  tables  of  Jupi- 
ter served  with  earthen  vessels,  would  learn  that  men  ought 
to  be  contented  with  such  things  as  the  Gods  themselves  did 
not  disdain  to  use. 


SENECA. 

Lucius  ANISLEUS  SENECA  was  a  native  of  Corduba,  an  ancient 
and  flourishing  Roman  settlement  in  Spain.  His  father,  Mar- 
cus Ami£eus  Seneca,  a  man  of  equestrian  rank,  was  a  cele- 


8  E  If  E  C  A  .  297 

brated  orator  ;  his  mother's  name  was  Helvia.  He  was  born 
about  fifteen  years  before  the  death  of  Augustus,  or  the  year 
before  the  commencement  of  the  Christian  era,  and  was 
brought  to  Rome  wliile  a  child,  probably  for  education,  by 
his  auut,  who  accompanied  him  on  account  of  the  delicate 
state  of  his  health.  His  first  studies  were  devoted  by  his 
father  to  eloquence,  but  his  mind,  naturally  disposed  towards 
serious  and  weighty  pursuits,  soon  passed  over  from  words  to 
things ;  and  he  chose  rather  to  reason  with  the  philosophers 
than  to  declaim  with  the  rhetoricians.  This  propensity  was 
displeasing  to  his  father,  who,  having  himself  no  taste  for 
philosophy,  thought  it  a  frivolous  study,  and  had  no  other  object 
of  ambition,  either  for  himself  or  his  children,  than  eloquence. 
His  son  Junius  Gallio  succeeded  in  this  pursuit,  and  was  cele- 
brated for  the  melody  of  his  elocution ;  but  Lucius  was  not 
to  be  diverted  from  his  purpose  of  devoting  himself  to  wTisdom. 
Sotion,  a  philosopher,  who,  though  of  the  Pythagorean  sect, 
inclined  to  the  Stoic  doctrine  concerning  morals,  was  fixed 
upon  as  his  preceptor.  But  whether  it  was  that  Seneca  was 
disgusted  with  the  severity  of  the  Pythagoric  discipline,  or 
that  he  was  dissatisfied  with  the  obscure  dogmas  of  this  school, 
he  soon  forsook  Sotion,  and  became  a  disciple  of  Attains,  a 
Stoic ;  at  the  same  time,  occasionally  conversing  with  phi- 
losophers of  other  sects,  and  freely  examining  the  writings,  or 
doctrines,  of  the  several  founders  of  the  Grecian  schools. 
Through  his  father's  importunity,  he  for  a  short  time  inter- 
rupted his  philosophical  studies  to  engage  in  the  business  of 
the  courts ;  and  we  are  assured  by  so  good  a  judge  as  Quin- 
tilian,  that,  whilst  he  continued  to  plead,  his  speeches,  if  de- 
ficient in  some  of  the  graces  of  oratory,  abounded  with  that 
good  sense  and  strength  of  thought  which  are  the  basis  of  elo- 
quence. 

Thus  furnished  with  plentiful  stores  of  learning,  and  with  a 
competent  skill  in  the  art  of  speaking,  Seneca,  as  soon  as  he 
arrived  at  the  age  of  manhood,  aspired  to  the  honors  of  the 


298  SENECA. 

State.  The  first  office  with  which  he  was  invested  was  that 
of  questor ;  but  at  what  time  he  obtained  it  is  uncertain. 
From  this  time  his  good  fortune  made  rapid  advances  ;  and 
he  soon  rose  to  distinction  in  the  court  of  Claudius.  But  the 
particulars  of  his  public  life,  during  this  period,  are  nowhere 
preserved.  Hence  it  is  impossible  to  discover  with  certainty 
the  cause  of  the  charge,  which  was  publicly  brought  against 
him,  of  adultery  with  Julia,  the  daughter  of  Gernianicus,  and 
wife  of  Venicius.  It  is  probable,  however,  from  the  infamous 
character  of  Messalina,  who  instigated  the  prosecution,  that  he 
•was  accused  without  any  sufficient  ground.  The  affair,  not- 
withstanding, terminated  in  his  banishment ;  and  Seneca,  after 
h-aving  for  many  years  enjoyed  the  favor  of  the  emperor,  and 
been  distinguished  among  the  great,  was  obliged  to  remain 
eight  years  an  exile  in  the  island  of  Corsica.  Here,  if  we  are 
to  credit  his  own  account,  he  passed  his  time  agreeably,  de- 
voting himself  entirety  to  the  study  of  philosophy  and  elegant 
learning.  In  a  letter  to  his  mother,  he  says,  "  Be  assured 
that  I  am  as  cheerful  and  happy  as  in  the  days  of  my  greatest 
prosperity ;  I  may  indeed  call  my  present  days  such ;  since 
my  mind,  free  from  care,  is  at  leisure  for  its  favorite  pursuits, 
and  can  either  amuse  itself  with  lighter  studies,  or,  in  its  eager 
search  after  truth,  rise  to  the  contemplation  of  its  own  nature 
and  that  of  the  universe."  But  it  may  be  questioned  whether 
Stoic  ostentation  had  not  some  share  in  dictating  this  report ; 
for  we  find  him,  in  another  place,  expressing  much  distress  on 
account  of  his  misfortune,  and  courting  the  emperor  in  a 
strain  of  servile  adulation,  little  worthy  of  so  eminent  a  phi- 
losopher. 

Agrippina,  the  second  wife  of  Claudius,  whose  character  was 
the  reverse  of  that  of  Messalina,  employed  her  interest  with 
the  emperor  in  favor  of  Seneca ;  and  not  only  obtained  his 
recall  from  banishment,  but  prevailed  upon  Claudius  to  con- 
fer upon  him  the  honorable  office  of  pretor.  Her  inducement 
to  this  measure  appears  to  have  been  a  desire  of  engaging  a 


SENECA.  299 

philosopher  of  so  much  distinction  and  merit  to  undertake  the 
education  of  her  son.  Probably,  too,  she  hoped,  by  attach- 
ing Seneca  to  her  family,  to  strengthen  Nero's  interest  in  the 
state  ;  for  the  Roman  people  would,  of  course,  entertain  high 
expectations  from  a  prince  educated  under  such  a  master. 
Afranius  Burrhus,  a  pretorian  prefect,  was  joined  with  Sen- 
eca in  this  important  charge ;  and  these  two  preceptors,  who 
were  entrusted  with  equal  authority,  and  had  each  his  re- 
spective department,  executed  their  trust  with  perfect  har- 
mony, and  with  some  degree  of  success  ;  Burrhus  instructing 
his  pupil  in  the  military  art,  and  inuring  him  to  wholesome 
discipline ;  Seneca  furnishing  him  with  the  principles  of  phi- 
losophy, and  the  precepts  of  wisdom  and  eloquence ;  and 
both  endeavoring  to  confine  their  pupil  Avithin  the  limits  of 
decorum  and  virtue.  "Whilst  these  preceptors  united  their 
authority,  Nero  was  restrained  from  indulging  his  natural  pro- 
pensities ;  but  after  the  death  of  Burrhus,  the  influence  of 
Seneca  declined,  and  the  young  prince  began  to  disclose  that 
depravity  which  afterwards  stained  his  character  with  eternal 
infamy. 

Still,  however,  Seneca  enjoyed  the  favor  of  his  prince  ;  and, 
after  Nero  was  advanced  to  the  empire,  he  long  continued  to 
load  his  preceptor  with  honors  and  riches.  Partly  from  in- 
heritance and  marriage,  but  chiefly  through  imperial  munif- 
icence, he  possessed  a  large  estate,  and  lived  in  great  splen- 
dor. Juvenal  speaks  of 

The  gardens  of  the  wealthy  Seneca. 

A  superb  mansion  at  Rome,  delightful  country  seats,  rich 
furniture,  including,  as  Dio  particularly  mentions,  five  hun- 
dred cedar  tables  with  ivory  feet,  uniform,  and  of  excellent 
workmanship,  were  articles  of  luxury  hitherto  unusual  among 
philosophers,  and  were  thought  by  many  not  very  consistent 
with  that  high  tone  of  indifference,  in  which  the  Stoics,  and 
among  the  rest  Seneca  himself,  spoke  of  external  good.  Suil- 


300  SENECA. 

ius,  one  of  his  enemies,  asked  by  what  wisdom,  or  by  what 
precepts  of  philosophy,  Seneca  had  been  able,  during  four 
years  of  imperial  favor,  to  amass  the  immense  sum  of  three 
hundred  thousand  sestertia* 

Seneca  perceived  the  gathering  clouds  of  jealousy  and 
envy,  and  saw  that  his  sovereign  himself,  whose  vices  were 
now  becoming  too  imperious  to  endure  restraint,  was  disposed 
to  listen  to  the  whispers  of  obloquy.  In  hopes  of  escaping 
the  destruction  which  threatened  him,  he  earnestly  requested 
the  emperor's  permission  to  withdraw  from  the  court,  and  de- 
vote the  remainder  of  his  days  to  philosophy  ;  he  even  offer- 
ed to  refund  the  immense  treasures  which  royal  bounty  had 
lavished  upon  him,  and  to  retire  with  a  bare  competency. 
Nero  rejected  his  proposal,  and  assured  him  of  the  continu- 
ance of  his  favor ;  but  the  philosopher  knew  the  emperor's 
disposition  too  well  to  rely  upon  his  promises.  From  this 
time  Seneca  declined  all  ceremonious  visits,  avoided  compa- 
ny, and,  under  the  pretence  of  indisposition,  or  a  desire  of 
prosecuting  his  studies,  confined  himself  almost  entirely  to 
his  own  house. 

It  was  not  long  before  Seneca  was  convinced  that  in  dis- 
trusting a  tyrant,  whose  mind  was  wholly  occupied  by  suspi- 
cion, he  had  acted  prudently.  Antonius  Natalis,  who  had 
been  concerned  in  the  conspiracy  of  Piso,  upon  his  examina- 
tion, in  order  to  court  the  favor  of  Nero,  or  perhaps  even  at 
his  instigation,  mentioned  Seneca  among  the  number  of  the 
conspirators.  This  single  evidence  was  by  the  tyrant  deemed 
sufficient  against  the  man  to  whom  he  had  been  indebted  for 
his  education,  and  whom  he  had  called  his  friend.  To  give 
some  color  to  the  accusation,  Natalis  pretended  that  he  had 
been  sent  by  Piso  to  visit  Seneca  whilst  he  was  sick,  and  to 
complain  of  his  having  refused  to  see  Piso,  who  as  a  friend 
might  have  expected  free  access  to  him  upon  all  occasions ; 
and  that  Seneca  in  reply,  had  said,  that  frequent  conversa- 

*  £2,421,875. 


SENECA.  301 

tions  could  be  of  no  service  to  either  partj  t  <*t  ill  at,  he  con- 
sidered his  own  safety  as  involved  in  tha(  ,-i  L'-^o.  Granius 
Sylvanus,  tribune  of  the  pretorian  cohort,  vVd3  sent  to  ask 
Seneca  whether  he  recollected  what  hkJ.  passed  between 
himself  and  Natalis.  Seneca,  whether  by  accident  or  design 
is  uncertain,  had  that  day  left  Carnpani/t,  and  was  at  his 
country  seat,  about  four  miles  from  the  city.  In  the  evening, 
while  he  was  at  supper  with  his  wife  Paulina  and  two  friends, 
the  tribune,  attended  by  a  military  band,  came  to  the  house, 
and  after  giving  the  soldiers  orders  to  surround  it,  delivered 
the  emperor's  message.  Seneca's  answer  was,  that  he  had 
received  a  complaint  from  Piso,  of  his  having  refused  to  see 
him  ;  and  that  the  state  of  his  health,  which  required  repose, 
had  been  his  apology.  He  added,  that  he  saw  no  reason  why 
he  should  prefer  the  safety  of  any  other  individual  to  his  own ; 
and  that  no  one  was  better  acquainted  than  Nero  w^ith  his 
independent  spirit. 

This  reply  kindled  the  emperor's  indignation,  and  he  asked 
the  messenger  whether  Seneca  discovered  any  intention  of 
putting  an  end  to  his  own  life.  The  tribune  assured  him 
that  there  was  no  appearance  either  of  terror  or  of  distress  in 
his  countenance  or  language.  Upon  this  the  tyrant,  who  felt 
his  own  pusillanimity  reproached  by  the  constancy  of  the  phi- 
losopher, ordered  him  to  return  without  delay  to  Seneca, 
with  his  peremptory  command  immediately  to  put  himself  to 
death.  Sylvanus,  who  had  himself  been  one  of  the  conspira- 
tors, had  not  the  courage  to  meet  the  face  of  Seneca  upon 
such  an  embassy,  but  sent  the  fatal  message  by  one  of  his 
centurions.  The  philosopher  received  it  with  perfect  com- 
posure, and  asked  permission  of  the  officer  to  alter  his  will. 
This  indulgence  being  refused  him,  he  turned  to  his  friends, 
and  requested,  that,  since  he  was  not  allowed  to  leave  them 
any  other  legacy,  they  would  preserve  in  their  memory  a 
portrait  of  his  life,  as  a  perpetual  monument  of  friendship.  At 
the  same  time  he  restrained  their  tears,  and  exorted  them  to 

26 


302  SENECA. 

exercise  tha+.  fortitude  which  they  had  professed  to  learn  in 
the  school  of  philosophy.  "  Where  are  now,"  said  he,  "  our 
boasted  precepts  of  wisdom?  where  the  armor  which  we 
have  been  so  many  years  providing  against  adverse  fate  ? 
Who  among  us  has  been  a  stranger  to  the  savage  spirit  of 
Nero  ?  After  murdering  his  mother  and  his  brother,  it  was 
not  to  be  expected  that  he  would  spare  his  preceptor." 

Having  conversed  in  this  manner  for  some  time  with  his 
friends,  Seneca  embraced  his  wife,  and  earnestly  entreated  her 
to  moderate  her  grief,  and  after  his  death  to  console  herself 
with  the  recollection  of  his  virtues  ;  but  Paulina  refused  every 
consolation,  except  that  of  dying  with  her  husband,  and  earn- 
estly solicited  the  friendly  hand  of  the  executioner.  Seneca, 
after  expressing  his  admiration  of  his  wife's  fortitude,  proceeded 
to  obey  the  emperor's  fatal  mandate,  by  opening  a  vein  in  each 
arm  ;  but,  through  his  advanced  age,  the  vital  stream  flowed 
so  reluctantly,  that  it  was  necessary  also  to  open  the  veins  of 
his  legs.  Still  finding  his  strength  exhausted  without  any 
prospect  of  a  speedy  release,  in  order  to  alleviate,  if  possible, 
the  anguish  of  his  wife,  who  was  a  spectator  of  the  scene,  and 
to  save  himself  the  torture  of  witnessing  her  distress,  he  per- 
suaded her  to  withdraw  to  another  chamber.  In  this  situation, 
Seneca,  with  wonderful  recollection  and  self-command,  dic- 
tated many  philosophical  reflections  to  his  secretary.  After  a 
long  interval,  his  friend  Statins  Annaaus,  to  whom  he  complain- 
ed of  the  tedious  delay  of  death,  administered  to  him  a  strong 
dose  of  poison ;  but  even  this,  through  the  feeble  state  of  his 
vital  powers,  produced  little  effect.  At  last,  he  ordered  the  at- 
tendants to  convey  him  into  a  warm  bath ;  and,  as  he  entered, 
he  sprinkled  those  who  stood  near,  saying,  "I  offer  this  liba- 
tion to  J  ..piter  the  Deliverer."  Then,  plunging  into  the  bath, 
he  was  soon  suffocated.  His  body  was  consumed,  according  to 
his  own  express  order  in  a  will  which  he  had  made  in  the 
height  of  his  prosperity,  without  any  funeral  pomp. 

Such  was  the  end  of  Seneca,  an  end  not  unworthy  the  pur- 
est and  best  principles  of  the  Stoic  philosophy. 


SIMON. SIMON     MAGUS.  303 


SIMON. 

SIMON,  was  an  Athenian  leather-dresser.  Whenever  Soc- 
rates came  into  his  workshop  and  conversed,  he  used  to  make 
memorandums  of  all  his  sayings  that  he  recollected.  From 
this  circumstance  people  have  called  his  dialogues  leathern 
ones. 

He  is,  as  some  people  say,  the  first  writer  who  reduced  the 
conversations  of  Socrates  into  the  form  of  dialogues.  And 
when  Pericles  offered  to  provide  for  him,  and  invited  him  to 
come  to  him,  he  said  he  would  not  sell  his  freedom  of  speech. 


SIMON    MAGUS. 

SIMON  MAGUS,  who  is  commonly  understood  to  have  heen 
the  person  mentioned  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  was  by  birth 
a  Samaritan,  and  in  his  native  country  practiced  magical  arts, 
which  procured  him  many  followers.  According  to  the  usual 
practice  of  the  Asiatics  at  this  time,  he  visited  Egypt,  and 
there,  probably,  became  acquainted  with  the  sublime  myste- 
ries taught  in  the  Alexandrian  school,  and  learned  those  theur- 
gic  or  magical  operations,  by  means  of  which  it  was  believed 
that  men  might  be  delivered  from  the  power  of  evil  demons. 
Upon  his  return  into  his  own  country,  the  author  of  the  "  Clem- 
entine Recognitions"  relates  that  he  imposed  upon  his  coun- 
trymen by  his  pretensions  to  supernatural  powers.  And  St. 
Luke  attests,  that  this  artful  fanatic,  using  sorcery,  had  be- 
witched the  people  of  Samaria,  giving  out  that  he  was  some 
Great  One ;  and  that  he  obtained  such  general  attention  and 
reverence  in  Samaria,  that  the  people  all  gave  heed  to  him 
from  the  least  to  the  greatest,  saying,  "  This  man  is  the  Great 
Power  of  God." 


304  SOCRATES. 

From  the  nature  of  the  philosophy  which,  at  this  period, 
was  taught  both  in  Asia  and  Egypt,  and  in  which  Simon  had, 
doubtless,  been  instructed,  it  may  be  reasonably  concluded 
that  he  pretended  to  be  an  ./Eon  of  the  first  order,  or  one  of 
the  most  exalted  of  those  substantial  powers,  or  divine  immor- 
tal natures,  which  were  supposed  to  have  emanated  from  the 
eternal  fountain  of  the  Supreme  Deity.  He  boasted,  that  he 
was  sent  down  from  heaven,  among  men,  to  chastise  and  sub- 
due those  evil  demons,  by  whose  malignant  influence  the  disor- 
ders and  miseries  of  human  nature  were  produced,  and  to  con- 
duct them  to  the  highest  felicity.  To  his  wife  Helena  Tie  also 
ascribed  a  similar  kind  of  divine  nature,  pretending  that  a 
female  ^Eon  inhabited  the  body  of  this  woman,  to  whom  he 
gave  the  name  of  Wisdom  ;  whence  some  Christian  fathers 
have  said,  that  he  called  her  the  Holy  Spirit. 


SOCRATES. 

SOCRATES  was  the  sou  of  Sophronicus,  a  statuary,  and  of 
Phsenarete,  a  midwife,  lie  was  a  citizen  of  Athens. 

Some  people  believed  that  he  assisted  Euripides  in  his  poems ; 
in  reference  to  which  idea,  Moresimachus  speaks  as  follows : — 

The  Phrygians  are  a  new  play  of  Euripides, 
But  Socrates  has  laid  the  main  foundation. 

And  again  he  says  : — 

Euripides :  patched  up  by  Socrates. 
And  Callias,  in  his  Captives,  says : — 

A.  Arc  you  so  proud,  giving  yourself  such  airs  ? 

B.  And  well  I  may,  for  Socrates  is  the  cause. 

And  Aristophanes  says,  in  his  Clouds  : — 

This  is  Euripides,  who  doth  compose 
Those  argumentative  wise  tragedies. 


SOCRATES.  305 

But,  having  been  a  pupil  of  Anaxagoras,  as  some  people 
say,  but  of  Damon  as  the  other  story  goes,  related  by  Alex- 
ander in  his  Successions,  after  the  condemnation  of  Anaxa- 
goras, he  became  a  disciple  of  Archelaus,  the  natural  philoso- 
pher. And,  indeed,  Aristoxenus  says  that  he  was  very  inti- 
mate with  him. 

But  Duris  says  that  he  was  a  slave,  and  employed  in  carving 
stones.  And  some  say  that  the  Graces  in  the  Acropolis  are 
his  work ;  and  they  are  clothed  figures.  And  that  it  is  in 
reference  to  this  that  Timon  says,  in  his  Silli : — 

From  them  proceeded  the  stone  polisher, 
The  reasoning  legislator,  the  enchanter 
Of  all  the  Greeks,  making  them  subtle  arguers, 
A  cunning  pedant,  a  shrewd  Attic  quibbler. 

For  he  was  very  clever  in  all  rhetorical  exercises,  as 
Idomeneus  also  assures  us.  But  the  thirty  tyrants  forbade 
him  to  give  lessons  in  the  art  of  speaking  and  arguing,  as 
Xenophon  tells  us.  And  Aristophanes  turns  him  into  ridicule 
in  his  Comedies,  as  making  the  worse  appear  the  better  reason. 
For  he  was  the  first  man,  as  Phavoriuus  says  in  his  Universal 
History,  who,  in  conjunction  with  his  disciple  JEschines, 
taught  men  how  to  become  orators.  And  Idomeneus  makes 
the  same  assertion  in  his  essay  on  the  Socratic  School.  He, 
likewise,  was  the  first  person  who  conversed  about  human 
life ;  and  also  was  the  first  philosopher  who  was  condemned 
to  death  and  executed.  And  Aristoxenus,  the  son  of  Spin- 
tharas,  says  that  he  lent  money  in  usury ;  and  that  he  collect- 
ed the  interest  and  principal  together,  and  then,  when  he  had 
got  the  interest,  he  lent  it  out  again.  And  Demetrius,  of 
Byzantium,  says  that  it  was  Criton  who  made  him  leave  his 
workshop  and  instruct  men,  out  of  the  admiration  which  he 
conceived  for  his  abilities. 

He  then,  perceiving  that  natural  philosophy  had  no  imme- 
diate bearing  on  our  interests,  began  to  enter  upon  moral 

26* 


306  SOCRATES. 

speculations,  both  in  his  workshop  and  in  the  market-place. 
And  he  said  that  the  objects  of  his  search  were — 

Whatever  good  or  harm  can  man  befall 
In  his  own  house. 

And  very  often,  while  arguing  and  discussing  points  that  arose, 
he  was  treated  with  great  violence  and  beaten,  and  pulled 
about,  and  laughed  at  and  ridiculed  by  the  multitude.  But 
he  bore  all  this  with  great  equanimity.  So  that  once,  when 
he  had  been  kicked  and  buffeted  about,  and  had  borne  it  all 
patiently,  and  some  one  expressed  his  surprise,  he  said,  "  Sup- 
pose an  ass  had  kicked  me,  would  you  have  had  me  bring  an 
action  against  him  ?"  And  this  is  the  account  of  Demetrius. 

But  he  had  no  need  of  travelling  (though  most  philosophers 
did  travel),  except  when  he  was  bound  to  serve  in  the  army. 
But  all  the  rest  of  his  life  he  remained  in  the  same  place,  and 
in  an  argumentative  spirit  he  used  to  dispute  with  all  who 
would  converse  with  him,  not  with  the  purpose  of  taking 
away  their  opinions  from  them,  so  much  as  of  learning  the 
truth,  as  far  as  he  could  do  so,  himself.  And  they  say  that 
Euripides  gave  him  a  small  work  of  Heraclitus  to  read,  and 
asked  him  afterwards  what  he  thought  of  it,  and  he  replied, 
"  What  I  have  understood  is  good ;  and  so,  I  think,  what  I 
have  not  understood  is ;  only  the  book  requires  a  Delian  diver 
to  get  at  the  meaning  of  it."  He  paid  great  attention  also  to  the 
training  of  the  body,  and  was  always  in  excellent  condition  him- 
self. Accordingly,  he  joined  in  the  expedition  to  Ainphipolis, 
and  he  it  was  who  took  up  and  saved  Xenophon  in  the  battle 
of  Delian,  when  he  had  fallen  from  his  horse ;  for  when  all 
the  Athenians  had  fled,  he  retreated  quietly,  turning  round 
sloAvly,  and  watching  to  repel  any  one  who  attacked  him.  He 
also  joined  in  the  expedition  to  Potidasa,  which  was  under- 
taken by  sea ;  for  it  was  impossible  to  get  there  by  land,  as 
the  war  impeded  the  communication.  And  they  say  that  on 
this  occasion  he  remained  the  whole  night  in  one  place  ;  and 


SOCRATES.  307 

that  though  he  had  deserved  the  prize  of  pre-eminent  valor, 
he  yielded  it  to  Alcibiades,  to  whom  Aristippus,  in  the  fourth 
book  of  his  treatise  on  the  Luxury  of  the  Ancients,  says  that 
lie  was  greatly  attached. 

He  was  a  man  of  great  firmness  of  mind,  and  very  much 
attached  to  the  democracy,  as  was  plain  from  his  not  submit- 
ting to  Oritias,  when  he  ordered  him  to  bring  Leon  of  Salamis, 
a  very  rich  man,  before  the  thirty,  for  the  purpose  of  being 
murdered.  And  he  alone  voted  for  the  acquittal  of  the  ten 
generals  ;*  and  when  it  was  in  his  power  to  escape  out  of 
prison  he  would  not  do  it ;  and  he  reproved  those  who  be- 
wailed his  fate,  and  even  while  in  prison,  he  delivered  those 
beautiful  discourses  which  we  still  possess. 

He  was  a  contented  and  venerable  man.  And  once,  when 
Alcibiades  offered  him  a  large  piece  of  ground  to  build  a 
house  upon,  he  said,  u  But  if  I  wanted  shoes,  and  you  had 
given  me  a  piece  of  leather  to  make  myself  shoes,  I  should 
be  laughed  at  if  I  took  it."  And  often,  when  he  beheld  the 
multitude  of  things  which  were  being  sold,  he  would  say  to 
himself,  "  How  many  things  there  are  which  I  do  not  want." 
And  he  was  continually  repeating  these  iambics  : — 

For  silver  plate  and  purple  useful  are 
For  actors  on  the  stage,  but  not  for  men. 

And  he  showed  his  scorn  of  Archelaus  the  Macedonian,  and 
Scopas  .the  Orononian,  and  Eurylochus  of  Larissa,  when  he 
refused  to  accept  their  money,  and  to  go  and  visit  them.  And 
he  was  so  regular  in  his  way  of  living,  that  it  happened  more 
than  once  when  there  was  a  plague  at  Athens,  that  he  was 
the  only  person  who  did  not  catch  it. 

Aristotle  says  that  he  had  two  wives.  The  first  was 
Xanthippe,  by  whom  he  had  a  son  named  Lamprocles ;  the 
second  was  Hyrto,  the  daughter  of  Aristides  the  Just ;  and  he 
took  her  without  any  dowry,  and  by  her  he  had  two  sons, 

*  After  the  battle  of  Arginusse. 


308  SOCRATES. 

Sophroniscus  and  Menexerms.  But  •  <>me  say  that  Myrto  was 
his  first  wife.  And  some,  among  whom  are  Satyrus,  and 
Hieronymus,  of  Rhodes,  say  that  he  had  them  both  at  the 
same  time.  For  they  say  that  the  Athenians,  on  account  of 
the  scarcity  of  men,  passed  a  vote  with  the  view  of  increasing 
the  population,  that  a  man  might  marry  one  citizen,  and 
might  also  have  children  by  another  who  should  be  legitimate; 
on  which  account  Socrates  did  so. 

And  he  was  a  man  able  to  look  down  upon  any  who 
mocked  him.  And  he  prided  himself  upon  the  simplicity  of 
his  way  of  life  ;  and  never  exacted  any  pay  from  his  pupils. 
And  he  used  to  say,  that  the  man  who  ate  with  the  greatest 
appetite,  had  the  least  need  of  delicacies ;  and  that  he  who' 
drank  with  the  greatest  appetite,  was  the  least  inclined  to  look 
for  a  draught  which  is  not  at  hand ;  and  that  those  who  want 
fewest  things  are  nearest  to  the  Gods.  And  thus  much,  in- 
deed, one  may  learn  from  the  comic  poets ;  who,  without  per- 
ceiving it,  praise  him  in  the  very  matters  for  which  they  rid- 
icule him.  Aristophanes  speaks  thus  :  — 

Prudent  man,  who  thus  with  justice  long  for  mighty  wisdom, 

Happiness  will  be  your  lot  in  Athens,  and  all  Greece  too  ; 

For  you  've  a  noble  memory,  and  plenty  of  invention, 

And  patience  dwells  within  your  mind,  and  you  are  never  tired, 

Whether  you  're  standing  still  or  walking  ;  and  you  care  not  for  cold, 

Nor  do  you  long  for  breakfast  time,  nor  e'er  give  in  to  hunger, 

But  wine  and  gluttony  you  shun,  and  all  such  kind  of  follies. 

And  Ameipsias  introduces  him  on  the  stage  in  a  cloak,  and 
speaks  thus  of  him  : — 

O  Socrates,  among  few  men  the  best, 

And  among  many  vainest ;  here  at  last 

You  come  to  us  courageously — but  where, 

Where  did  you  get  that  cloak  ?  so  strange  a  garment, 

Some  leather  cutter  must  have  given  you 

By  way  of  joke:  and  yet  this  wortl./  man, 

Though  ne'er  so  hungry,  never  flatters  any  one. 

Aristophanes,  too,  exposes  Iris  contemptuous  and  arrogant 
disposition,  speaking  thus:- 


SOCRATES.  309 

You  strut  along  the  streets,  and  look  around  you  proudly, 
And  barefoot  many  ills  endure,  and  hold  your  head  above  us. 

And  yet,  sometimes  he  adapted  himself  to  the  occasion  and 
dressed  handsomely.  As,  for  instance,  in  the  banquet  of 
Plato,  where  he  is  represented  as  going  to  find  Agathon. 

He  was  a  man  of  great  ability,  both  in  exhorting  men  to, 
and  disfeuading  them  from,  any  course ;  as,  for  instance,  hav- 
ing discoursed  with  Thaetetus  on  the  subject  of  knowledge, 
he  sent  him  away  almost  inspired,  as  Plato  says.  When  Eu- 
thyphron  had  commenced  a  prosecution  against  his  father  for 
having  killed  a  foreigner,  he  conversed  with  him  on  the  sub- 
ject of  piety,  and  turned  him  from  his  purpose  ;  and  by  his 
exhortations  he  made  Lysis  a  most  moral  man.  For  he  was 
very  ingenious  at  deriving  arguments  from  existing  circum- 
stances. And  so  he  mollified  his  son  Lamprocles  when  he 
was  very  angry  with  his  mother,  and  he  wrought  upon  Glau- 
son,  the  brother  of  Plato,  who  was  desirous  to  meddle  with 
affairs  of  State,  and  induced  him  to  abandon  his  purpose,  be- 
cause of  his  want  of  experience  in  such  matters.  And,  on 
the  contrary,  he  persuaded  Charmidas  to  devote  himself  to 
politics,  because  he  was  a  man  very  well  calculated  for  such 
business.  He  also  inspired  Iphicrates,  the  general,  with  cour- 
age, by  showing  him  the  gamecocks  of  Miclias  the  barber, 
pluming  themselves  against  those  of  Callias  ;  and  Glaueruides 
said,  that  the  State  ought  to  keep  him  carefully,  as  if  he  were 
a  pheasant  or  a  peacock.  He  used  also  to  say,  that  "  it  was 
a  strange  thing  that  every  one  could  easily  tell  what  prop- 
erty he  had,  but  was  not  able  to  name  all  his  friends,  or  even 
to  tell  their  number  ;  so  careless  were  men  on  that  subject." 
Once  when  he  saw  Euclid  exceedingly  anxious  about  some 
dialectic  arguments,  he  said  to  him,  "  0  Euclid,  you  will  ac- 
quire a  power  of  managing  sophists,  but  not  of  governing 
men."  For  he  thought  that  subtle  hair-splitting  on  those 
subjects  was  quite  useless. 

"When  Charmidas  offered  him  some  slaves,  with  the  view 


olO  SOCRATES. 

to  his  making  a  profit  of  them,  he  would  not  have  them  ;  and 
as  some  people  say,  he  paid  no  regard  to  the  beauty  of  Alci- 
biades. 

He  used  to  praise  leisure  as  the  most  valuable  of  possessions. 
And  it  was  a  saying  of  his  that  there  was  one  only  good, 
namely,  knowledge;  and  one  only  evil,  namely,  ignorance  ; 
that  riches  and  high  birth  had  nothing  estimable  rin  them, 
but  that,  on  the  contrary,  they  were  wholly  eviL--  Accord- 
ingly, when  some  one^told  him  that  the  mother  of  Antis- 
thenes  was  a  Thracian  woman,  "  Did  you  suppose,"  said  he, 
."  that  so  noble  a  man  must  be  born  of  two  Athenians  ?" 
And  when  Phaedo  was  reduced  to  a  state  of  slavery,  he  or- 
dered Crito  to  ransom  him,  and  taught  him,  and  made  him  a 
philosopher. 

He  used  to  learn  to  play  on  the  lyre  when  he  had  time, 
saying,  "  It  is  not  absurd  to  learn  anything  that  one  does  not 
know  ;"  and  further,  he  used  frequently  to  dance,  thinking  such 
au  exercise  good  for  the  health  of  the  body. 

He  used  also  to  say  that  the  daemon  foretold  the  future  to 
him  ;*  and  that  to  begin  well  was  not  a  trifling  thing,  but  yet 
not  far  from  a  trifling  thing ;  and  that  he  knew  nothing,  ex- 
cept the  fact  of  his  ignorance.  Another  saying  of  his  was, 
that  "  those  who  bought  things  out  of  season,  at  an  extrava- 
gant price,  expected  never  to  live  till  'the  proper  season  for 
them."  Once,  when  he  was  asked  what  was  the  virtue  of  a 
young  man,  he  said,  "  To  avoid  excess  in  everything."  And 
he  used  to  say,  that  it  was  necessary  to  learn  geometry  only 
so  far  as  might  enable  a  man  to  measure  laud  for  the  purposes 
of  buying  and  selling.  And  when  Euripides,  in  his  Augur, 
had  spoken  thus  of  virtue  : — 

'T  is  best  to  leave  these  subjects  undisturbed ; 

*  "This  is  not  quite  correct.  Socrates  believed  that  the  demon  which  at- 
tended him,  limited  his  warnings  to  his  own  conduct  ;  preventing  him  from 
doing  what  was  wrong,  but  not  prompting  him  to  do  right." — See  Grate's  ad- 
mirable chapter  on  Socrates*  History  of  Greece,  vol.  V. 


SOCRATES.  311 

he  rose  up  and  left  the  theatre,  saying  that u  It  was  an  absurd- 
ity to  think  it  right  to  seek  for  a  slave  if  one  could  not  find 
him,  but  to  let  virtue  be  altogether  disregarded."     The  ques- 
tion was  once  put  to  him  by  a  man  whether  he  would  advise 
him  to  marry  or  not?     And  he  replied,  "Whichever  you  do, 
you  will  repent  it."     He  often  said,  that  he  wondered  at  those 
who  made  stone  statues,  when  he  saw  how  careful  they  were 
that  the  stone  should  be  like  the  man  it  was  intended  to  rep- 
resent,   but    how    careless   they  were  of  themselves,  as    to 
guarding  against  being  like  the  stone.     He  used  also  to  recom- 
mend young  men  to  be  constantly  looking  in  the  glass,  in  order 
that,  if  they  were  handsome,  they  might  be  worthy  of  their 
beauty  ;  and  if  they  were  ugly,  they  might  conceal  their  un- 
sightly appearance   by  their  accomplishments.     He  once  in- 
vited  some  rich  men   to  dinner,  and  when  Xanthippe  was 
ashamed  of  their  insufficient  appointments,  he  said,  "Be  of 
good  cheer;  for  if  our  guests  are  sensible  men,  they  will  bear 
with  us;  and  if  they  are  not,  we  need  not  care  about  them." 
He  used  to  say.'     "  That  other  men  lived  to  eat,  but  that  he 
ate  to  live."     Another  saying  of  his  was,  "  That  to  have  a  re- 
gard for  the  worthless  multitude,  was  like  the  case  of  a  man 
who  refused  to  take  one  piece  of  money  of  four  drachmas  as 
if  it  were  bad,  and  then  took  a  heap  of  such  coin  and  admit- 
ted them  to  be  good.1'     When  ^Eschines  said,  "I  am  a  poor 
man,  and  having  nothing  else,  but  I  give  you  myself ;"  u  Do 
you  not,"  he  replied,  "  perceive  that  you  are  giving  me  what 
is  of  the  greatest  value?"     He  said  to  some  one,  who  was  ex- 
pressing indignation  at  being  overlooked  when  the  thirty  had 
seized  on  the  supreme  power,  "  Do  you,  then,  repent  of  not 
being  a  tyrant  too  ?"     A  man  said  to  him,  "  The  Athenians 
have  condemned  you  to  death."     "And  nature,"  he  replied, 
t'  has  condemned  them."     But  some  attribute  this  answer  to 
Anaxagoras.     When  his  wife  said  to  him,  "  You  die-  undeserv- 
edly."    "  Would   you,    then,"  he    rejoined,    "  have    had  me 


312  SOCRATES. 

deserve  death  ?"  He  thought  once  that  some  one  appeared  to 
him  in  a  dream,  and  said : — 

On  the  third  day  you  '11  come  to  lovely  Phthia. 

And  so  he  said  to  JEschines,  "  In  three  days  I  shall  die."  And 
when  he  was  ahout  to  drink  the  hemlock,  Apollodorus  pre- 
sented him  with  a  handsome  robe,  that  he  might  expire  in  it ; 
and  he  said,  "  Why  was  my  own  dress  good  enough  to  live  in, 
and  not  good  enough  to  die  in?"  When  a  person  said  to  him, 
"  Such  an  one  speaks  ill  of  you  ;"  "  To  be  sure,"  said  he,  "  for 
he  has  never  learnt  to  speak  well."  When  Antisthenes  turned 
the  ragged  side  of  his  cloak  to  the  light,  he  said,  "  I  see  your 
silly  vanity  through  the  holes  in  your  cloak."  When  some  one 
said  to  him,  "  Does  not  that  man  abuse  you  ?"  "  No,"  said  he, 
"  for  that  does  not  apply  to  me."  It  was  a  saying  of  his,  too, 
"  That  it  is  a  good  thing  for  a  man  to  offer  himself  cheerfully 
to  the  attacks  of  the  comic  writers ;  for  then,  if  they  say  any- 
thing worth  hearing,  one  will  be  able  to  mend ;  and  if  they  do 
not,  then  all  they  say  is  unimportant." 

He  said  once  to  Xanthippe,  who  first  abused  him,  and  then 
threw  water  at  him,  "  Did  I  not  say  that  Xanthippe  was 
thundering  now,  and  would  soon  rain  ?"  When  Alcibiades 
said  to  him,  "  The  abusive  temper  of  Xanthippe  is  intolerable ;" 
u  But  I,"  he  rejoined,  "  am  used  to  it,  just  as  I  should  be  if  I 
were  always  hearing  the  noise  of  a  pulley ;  and  yon  yourself 
endure  to  hear  geese  cackling."  To  which  Alcibiades  answered, 
"Yes,  but  they  bring  me  eggs  and  goslings."  "  Well,"  rejoined 
Socrates,  "and  Xanthippe  brings  me  children."  Once,  she 
attacked  him  in  the  market-place,  and  tore  his  cloak  off;  his 
friends  advised  him  to  keep  her  off  with  his  hands  ;  "Yes,  by 
Jove,"  said  he,  "  that  while  we  are  boxing  you  may  all  cry  out, 
'  Well  done,  Socrates,  well  done,  Xanthippe.' '  And  he  used 
to  say,  that  one  ought  to  live  with  a  restive  woman,  just  as 
horsemen  manage  violent-tempered  horses ;  "  and  as  they," 
said  he,  "  vhen  they  have  once  mastered  them,  are  easily 


SOCRATES.  313 

able  to  manage  all  others ;  so  I,  after  managing  Xanthippe, 
can  easily  live  with  any  one  else  whatever." 

It  was  in  consequence  of  such  sayings  and  actions  as  these, 
that  the  priestess  at  Delphi  was  witness  in  his  favor,  when 
she  gave  Cha3rephon  this  answer,  which  is  so  universally 
known : — 

Socrates  of  all  mortals  is  the  wisest. 

in  consequence  of  which  answer,  he  incurred  great  envy ;  and 
he  brought  envy  also  on  himself,  by  convicting  men  who  gave 
themselves  airs  of  folly  and  ignorance,  as  undoubtedly  he  did 
to  Antyus ;  and  as  is  shown  in  Plato's  Meuo.  For  he,  not 
being  able  to  bear  Socrates'  jesting,  first  of  all  set  Aristophanes 
to  attack  him,  and  then  persuaded  Melitus  to  institute  a  prose- 
cution against  him,  on  the  ground  of  impiety  and  of  corrupt- 
ing the  youth  of  the  city.  Accordingly,  Melitus  did  institute 
a  prosecution  ;  Polyeuctns  pronounced  the  sentence.  Polye- 
rates,  the  sophist,  wrote  the  speech  which  was  delivered. 
And  Lycon,  the  demagogue,  prepared  everything  necessary  to 
support  the  impeachment ;  but  Antistheues  in  his  Success- 
ions of  the  Philosophers,  and  Plato  in  his  Apology,  say  that 
these  men  brought  the  accusation : — Anytus,  and  Lycon,  and 
Melitus ;  Auytus,  acting  against  him.  on  behalf  of  the  magis- 
trates, and  because  of  his  political  principles ;  Lycou,  on  be- 
half of  the  orators  ;  and  Melitus  on  behalf  of  the  poets,  ah1  of 
whom  Socrates  used  to  pull  to  pieces.  But  Phavorinus,  in  the 
first  book  of  his  Commentaries,  says,  that  the  speech  of  Poly- 
crates  against  Socrates  is  not  the  genuine  one  ;  for  in  it  there 
is  mention  made  of  the  walls  having  been  restored  by  Conon, 
which  took  place  six  years  after  the  death  of  Socrates ;  and 
certainly  this  is  true. 

But  the  sworn  informations,  on  which  the  trial  proceeded, 
were  drawn  up  in  this  fashion  ;  for  they  are  preserved  to  this 
day,  says  Phavorinus,  in  the  temple  of  Cybele : — u  Melitus, 
the  son  of  Melitus,  of  Pittea,  impeaches  Socrates,  the  son  of 
Sophroniscus,  of  Alopece :  Socrates  is  guilty,  inasmuch  as  he 

27 


314  SOCRATES. 

does  not  believe  in  the  Gods  whom  the  city  worships,  but  in- 
troduces other  strange  deities  ;  he  is  also  guilty,  inasmuch  as 
he  corrupts  the  young  men,  and  the  punishment  he  has  in- 
curred is  death." 

But  the  philosopher,  after  Lysias  had  prepared  a  defence 
for  him,  read  it  through,  and  said — "  It  is  a  very  fine  speech, 
Lysias,  but  is  not  suitable  for  me ;  for  it  was  manifestly  the 
speech  of  a  lawyer,  rather  than  of  a  philosopher."  And  when 
Lysias  replied,  "  How  is  it  possible,  that  if  it  is  a  good  speech, 
it  should  not  be  suitable  to  you?"  he  said,  "Just  as  fine 
clothes  and  handsome  shoes  would  not  be  suitable  to  me." 
And  when  the  trial  was  proceeding,  Justus,  of  Tiberias,  in  his 
Garland,  says  that  Plato  ascended  the  tribune  and  said,  "  I, 
men  of  Athens,  being  the  youngest  of  all  those  who  have 
mounted  the  tribune  .  .  ."  and  that  he  was  interrupted 
by  the  judges,  who  cried  out,  "Come  down." 

So  when  he  had  been  condemned  by  two  hundred  and 
eighty-one  votes,  being  six  more  than  were  given  in  his  favor, 
and  when  the  judges  were  making  an  estimate  of  what  punish- 
ment or  fine  should  be  inflicted  on  him,  he  said  that  he  ought 
to  be  fined  five  and  twenty  drachmas  ;  but  Eubulides  says  that 
he  admitted  that  he  deserved  a  fine  of  one  hundred.  And 
when  the  judges  raised  an  outcry  at  this  proposition,  -he  said, 
"My  real  opinion  is,  that  as  a  return  for  what  has  been  done 
by  me,  1  deserve  a  maintenance  in  the  Prytaneum  for  the  rest 
of  my  life."  So  they  condemned  him  to  death,  by  eighty 
votes  more  than  they  had  originally  found  him  guilty.  And 
he  was  put  into  prison,  and  a  few  days  afterwards  he  drank 
ttje  hemlock,  having  held  many  admirable  conversations  in 
the  meantime,  which  Plato  has  recorded  in  the  Phsedo. 

So  he  died ;  but  the  Athenians  immediately  repented*  of 
their  action,  so  that  they  closed  all  the  palaestrae  and  gymnasia ; 
and  they  banished  his  accusers,  and  condemned  Melitus  to 
death ;  but  they  honored  Socrates  with  a  brazen  statue,  which 

*  Grote  gives  good  reasons  for  disbelieving  tb  is. 


S  O  fc  RATES  .  15 

they  erected  in  the  place  where  the  sacred  vessels  are  kept ; 
and  it  was  the  work  of  Lysippus.  But  Anytns  had  already 
left  Athens ;  and  the  people  of  Heraclea  banished  him  from 
that  city  the  day  of  his  arrival.  But  Socrates  was  not  the 
only  person  who  met  with  this  treatment  at  the  hands  of  the 
Athenians,  but  many  other  men  received  the  same  ;  for  they 
fined  Homer  fifty  drachmas  as  a  madman,  and  they  said  that 
lystseus  was  out  of  his  wits.  But  they  honored  Astydamas, 
before  vEschylus,  with  a  brazen  statue.  And  Euripides  re- 
proaches them  for  their  conduct  in  his  Palamedes,  saying — 

Ye  have  slain,  ye  have  slain, 

O  Greeks,  the  all-wise  nightingale, 

The  favorite  of  the  Muses,  guiltless  all. 

But  Philochorus  says  that  Euripides  died  before  Socrates. 

Aristotle  tells  us  that  a  certain  one  of  the  magi  came  from. 
Syria  to  Athens  and  blamed  Socrates  for  many  parts  of  his 
conduct,  and  also  foretold  that  he  would  come  to  a  violent 
death  ;  and  we  ourselves  have  written  this  epigram  on  him  : — 

Drink  now,  O  Socrates,  in  the  realms  of  Jove, 
For  truly  did  the  God  pronounce  you  wise, 
And  he  who  said  so  is  himself  all  wisdom  ; 
You  drank  the  poison  which  your  country  gave, 
But  they  drank  wisdom  from  your  God-like  voice. 

Brucker's  account  of  this  distinguished  man  is  as  follows : 
Socrates,  by  his  penetrating  judgment,  exalted  views,  and 
liberal  spirit,  united  with  exemplary  integrity,  and  purity  of 
manners,  is  acknowledged,  by  the  unanimous  suffrage  of  an- 
tiquity, to  have  obtained  the  first  place  among  philosophers. 
He  was  born  at  Alopeces,  a  village  near  Athens,  in  the  fourth 
year  of  the  seventy-seventh  Olympiad.  His  parents  were  of 
low  rank.  Sophroniscus  brought  up  his  son,  contrary  to  his 
inclination,  in  his  own  manual  employment ;  in  which  Soc- 
rates, though  his  mind  was  continually  aspiring  after  higher 
objects,  was  not  unsuccessful.  Whilst  he  was  a  young  man, 
he  is  said  to  have  formed  statues  of  the  habited  Graces, 


316  SOCRATES, 

which  were  allowed  a  place  in  the  citadel  of  Athens.  Upon 
the  death  of  his  father,  he  was  left  with  no  other  inheritance 
than  the  small  sum  of  eighty  mince,  which,  through  the  dis- 
honesty of  a  relation,  to  whom  Sophroniscus  left  the  charge 
of  his  affairs,  he  soon  lost.  This  laid  him  under  the  neces- 
sity of  supporting  himself  by  labor ;  and  he  continued  to 
practice  the  art  of  statuary  in  Athens  ;  at  the  same  time, 
however,  devoting  all  the  leisure  he  could  command  to  the 
study  of  philosophy. 

Crito,  a  wealthy  Athenian,  remarking  the  strong  propen- 
sity towards  study  which  this  young  man  discovered,  and  ad- 
miring his  ingenious  disposition  and  distinguished  abilities, 
generously  took  him  under  his  patronage,  and  entrusted  him 
with  the  instruction  of  his  children.  The  opportunities 
which  Socrates  by  this  means  enjoyed  of  attending  the  pub- 
lic lectures  of  the  most  eminent  philosophers,  so  far  in- 
creased his  thirst  after  wisdom,  that  he  determined  to  relin- 
quish his  occupation,  and  every  prospect  of  emolument  which 
that  might  afford,  in  order  to  devote  himself  entirely  to  his 
favorite  pursuits.  His  first  preceptor  in  philosophy  was  An- 
axagoras.  After  this  eminent  master  in  the  Ionic  school 
left  Athens,  Socrates  attached  himself  to  Archelaus.  Under 
these  instructors  he  diligently  prosecuted  the  study  of  nature, 
in  the  usual  manner  of  the  philosophers  of  the  age,  and  be- 
came well  acquainted  with  their  doctrines.  Prodicus,  the 
sophist,  was  his  preceptor  in  eloquence,  Evenus  in  poetry, 
Theodoras  in  geometry,  and  Damo  in  music.  Aspasia,  a  wo- 
man no  less  celebrated  for  her  intellectual  than  her  personal 
accomplishments,  whose  house  was  frequented  by  the  most 
celebrated  characters,  had  also  some  share  in  the  education  of 
Socrates. 

Thus  furnished  with  preceptors  of  every  kind,  Socrates  ac- 
quired that  knowledge  at  home,  Avhich  the  Greeks  had  hith- 
erto sought  in  foreign  countries  ;  but  for  which,  after  all,  they 
were  more  indebted  to  their  own  ingenuity  and  industry, 


SOCRATES.  317 

than  to  the  instructions  of  the  Oriental  or  Egyptian  priests. 
It  cannot  be  reasonably  doubted  that,  with  such  advantages, 
he  became  master  of  every  kind  of  learning,  which  the  age  in 
which  he  lived  could  afford. 

With  these  i  ncommon  endowments,  both  natural  and  ac- 
quired, Socrates  appeared  in  Athens,  under  the  respectable 
characters  of  a  good  citizen  and  a  true  philosopher.  Being 
called  upon  by  his  country  to  take  up  arms  in  the  long  and 
severe  struggle  between  Athens  and  Sparta,  he  signalized 
himself  at  the  siege  of  Potidasa,  both  by  his  valor,  and  by  the 
hardiness  with  which  he  endured  fatigue.  During  the  sever- 
ity of  a  Thracian  winter  whilst  others  were  clad  in  furs,  he 
wore  only  his  usual  clothing,  and  walked  barefoot  upon  the 
ice.  In  an  engagement  in  which  he  saw  Alcibiades  (a  young 
man  of  noble  rank  whom  he  accompanied  during  this  expedi- 
tion) falling  down  wounded,  he  advanced  to  defend  him,  and 
saved  both  him  and  his  arms  ;  and  though  the  prize  of  valor 
was,  on  this  occasion,  unquestionably  due  to  Socrates,  he 
generously  gave  his  vote  that  it  might  be  bestowed  upon  Al- 
cibiades, to  encourage  his  rising  merit.  Several  years  after- 
wards, Socrates  voluntarily  entered  upon  a  military  expedi- 
tion against  the  Boaotians,  during  which,  in  an  unsuccessful 
engagement  at  Delium,  he  retired  with  great  coolness  from 
the  field ;  when,  observing  Xenophon  lying  wounded  upon 
the  ground,  he  took  him  upon  his  shoulders  and  bore  him  out 
of  the  reach  of  the  enemy.  Soon  afterwards  he  went  out  a 
third  time,  in  a  military  capacity,  in  the  expedition  for  the 
purpose  of  reducing  Amphipolis  ;  but  this  proving  unsuccess- 
ful, he  returned  to  Athens,  and  remained  there  till  his  death. 

It  was  not  till  Socrates  was  upwards  of  fifty-six  years  of  age 
that  ho  undertook  to  serve  his  country  in  any  civil  office.  At 
that  age,  he  was  chosen  to  represent  his  own  district  in  the 
senate  of  five  hundred.  In  this  office,  though  he  at  first  ex- 
posed himself  to  some  degree  of  ridicule  from  the  want  of  ex- 
perience in  the  forms  of  business,  he  soon  convinced  his  col- 

27* 


$18  SOCRATES. 

eag'ies  that  he  was  superior  to  them  all  in  wisdom  and  integ- 
rity. "Whilst  they,  intimidated  by  the  clamors  of  the  popu- 
tace,  passed  an  unjust  sentence  of  condemnation  upon  the 
;ommanders  who,  after  the  engagement  at  the  Arginusian 
slands,  had  been  prevented  by  a  storm  from  paying  funeral 
honors  to  the  dead,  Socrates  stood  forth  singly  in  their  de- 
fence, and,  to  the  last,  refused  to  give  his  suffrage  against 
them,  declaring  that  no  force  should  compel  him  to  act  con- 
trary to  justice  and  the  laws.  Under  the  subsequent  tyranny, 
he  never  ceased  to  condemn  the  oppressive  and  cruel  proceed- 
ings of  the  Thirty  Tyrants ;  and  when  his  boldness  provoked 
their  resentment,  so  that  his  life  was  in  hazard,  fearing  neither 
treachery  nor  violence,  he  still  continued  to  support,  with  un- 
daunted firmness,  the  rights  of  his  fellow-citizens.  The  ty- 
rants, probably  that  they  might  create  some  new  ground  of 
complaint  against  Socrates,  sent  an  order  to  him,  with  several 
other  persons,  to  apprehend  a  wealthy  citizen  of  Salamis ;  the 
rest  executed  the  commission;  but  Socrates  refused,  saying 
that  he  would  rather  himself  suffer  death  than  be  instrument- 
al in  inflicting  it  unjustly  upon  another. 

These  proofs  of  public  virtue,  both  in  a  military  and  civil 
•capacity,  are  sufficient  to  entitle  the  name  of  Socrates  to  a 
distinguished  place  in  the  catalogue  of  good  citizens.  But  his 
first  honors  arise  from  the  manner  in  which  he  supported  the 
character  of  a  philosopher,  and  discharged  the  duties  of  a 
moral  preceptor. 

Observing,  with  regret,  how  much  the  opinions  of  the 
Athenian  youth  were  misled,  and  their  principles  and  taste 
corrupted  by  philosophers,  who  spent  all  their  time  in  refined 
speculations  upon  nature  and  the  origin  of  things,  and  by 
sophists,  who  taught  in  their  schools  the  arts  of  false  eloquence 
and  deceitful  reasoning,  Socrates  formed  the  wise  and  gen- 
erous desigr  of  instituting  a  new  and  more  useful  method  of 
instruction.  He  justly  conceived  the  true  end  of  philosophy 
t<  >  be,  not  to  make  an  ostentatious  display  of  superior  learning 


SOCRATES. 


319 


and  ability  in  subtle  disputations  or  ingenious  conjectures,  but 
to  free  mankind  from  the  dominion  of  pernicious  prejudices  ; 
to  correct  their  vices  ;  to  inspire  them  with  the  love  of  virtue, 
and  thus  conduct  them  in  the  path  of  wisdom  to  true  felicity, 
lie  therefore  assumed  the  character  of  a  moral  philosopher ; 
and,  looking  upon  the  whole  city  of  Athens  as  his  school,  and 
all  who  were  disposed  to  lend  him  their  attention  as  his  pupils, 
he  seized  every  occasion  of  communicating  moral  wisdom  to 
his  fellow-citizens.  He  passed  his  time  chiefly  in  public.  It 
was  his  custom  in  the  morning  to  visit  the  places  made  use  of 
for  walking  and  public  exercises ;  at  noon,  to  appear  among 
the  crowds  in  the  markets  or  courts,  and  to  spend  the  rest  of 
the  day  in  those  parts  of  the  city  which  were  most  frequented. 
Sometimes  he  collected  an  audience  about  him  in  the  Lyceum, 
(a  pleasant  meadow  on  the  border  of  the  river  Ilyssus,)  where 
he  delivered  a  discourse  from  the  chair,  whilst  his  auditors  were 
seated  on  benches  around  him.  At  other  times  he  conversed, 
in  a  less  formal  way,  with  any  of  his  fellow-citizens  in  places 
of  common  resort,  or  with  his  friends  at  meals,  or  in  their 
hours  of  amusement ;  thus  making  every  place  to  which  he 
came  a  school  of  virtue.  Not  only  did  young  men  of  rank 
and  fortune  attend  upon  his  lectures,  but  he  sought  for  dis- 
ciples even  among  mechanics  and  laborers. 

The  method  of  instruction  which  Socrates  chiefly  made  use 
of,  was  to  propose  a  series  of  questions  to  the  person  with 
whom  he  conversed,  in  order  to  lead  him  to  some  unforeseen 
conclusion.  He  first  gained  the  consent  of  his  respondent  to 
some  obvious  truths,  and  then  obliged  him  to  admit  others, 
from  their  relation,  or  resemblance,  to  -those  to  which  they 
had  alreadv  assented.  Without  making  use  of  any  direct 

v 

argument  or  persuasion,  he  chose  to  lead  the  person  he  meant 
to  instruct  to  deduce  the  truths  of  which  he  wished  to  con- 
vince him  as  a  necessary  consequence  from  his  own  conces- 
sions. He  commonly  conducted  these  conferences  with  such 
address,  as  to  conceal  his  design  till  the  respondent  had  ad- 


320  SOCRATES. 

vanced  too  far  to  recede.  On  some  occasions  he  made  use  of 
ironical  language,  that  vain  men  might  be  caught  in  their  own 
replies,  and  be  obliged  to  confess  their  ignorance.  He  never 
assumed  the  air  of  a  morose  and  rigid  preceptor,  but  com- 
municated useful  instruction  with  all  the  ease  and  pleasantry 
of  polite  conversation. 

Socrates  was  not  less  distinguished  by  his  modesty  than  by 
his  wisdom.  His  discourses  betray  no  marks  of  arrogance  or 
vanity.  He  professed  "to  know  only  this,  that  he  knew 
nothing."  In  this  declaration,  which  he  frequently  repeated, 
he  had  no  other  intention  than  to  convince  his  hearers  of  the 
narrow  limits  of  the  human  understanding.  Nothing  was 
farther  from  his  thoughts  than  to  encourage  universal  scepti- 
cism :  on  moral  subjects  he  always  expressed  himself  with 
confidence  and  decision ;  but  he  was  desirous  of  exposing  to 
contempt  the  arrogance  of  those  pretenders  to  science  who 
would  acknowledge  themselves  ignorant  of  nothing.  The 
truth  was,  "that  Socrates,  though  eminently  furnished,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  with  every  kind  of  learning,  preferred 
moral  to  speculative  wisdom.  Convinced  that  philosophy  is 
valuable,  not  as  it  furnishes  questions  for  the  schools,  but  as  it 
provides  men  with  a  law  of  life,  he  censured  his  predecessors 
for  spending  all  their  time  in  abstruse  researches  into  nature, 
and  taking  no  pains  to  render  themselves  useful  to  mankind. 
His  favorite  maxim  was,  "  Whatever  is  above  us,  doth  not 
concern  us."  He  estimated  the  value  of  knowledge  by  its 
utility,  and  recommended  the  study  of  geometry,  astronomy, 
and  other  sciences,  only  so  far  as  they  admit  of  a  practical  ap- 
plication to  the  purposes  of  human  life.  His  great  object,  in 
all  his  conferences  and  discourses,  was  to  lead  men  into  an 
acquaintance  with  themselves;  to  convince  them  of  their 
follies  and  vices;  to  inspire  them  with  the  love  of  virtue  ;  and 
to  furnish  them  with  useful  moral  instruction.  Cicero  might, 
therefore,  very  justly  say  to  Socrates,  that  he  was  the  first 
who  called  down  Philosophy  from  heaven  to  earth,  and  in- 


SOCRATES.  321 

troduced  her  into  the  public  walks  and  domestic  retirements 
of  men,  that  she  might  instruct  them  concerning  life  and 
manners. 

The  moral  lessons  which  Socrates  taught,  he  himself  dili- 
gently practiced  ;  whence  he  excelled  other  philosophers  in 
personal  merit  no  less  than  in  his  method  of  instruction.  His 
conduct  was  uniformly  such  as  became  a  teacher  of  modern 
wisdom. 

Through  his  whole  life,  this  good  man  discovered  a  mind 
superior  to  the  attractions  of  wealth  and  power.  Contrary  to 
the  general  practice  of  the  preceptors  of  his  time,  he  instruct- 
ed his  pupils  without  receiving  from  them  any  gratuity.  He 
frequently  refused  rich  presents,  which  were  offered  him  by 
Alcibiades  and  others,  though  importunately  urged  to  accept 
them  by  his  wife.  The  chief  men  of  Athens  were  his  stew- 
ards ;  they  sent  him  in  provisions,  as  they  apprehended  he 
wanted  them :  he  took  what  his  present  Avants  required,  and 
returned  the  rest.  With  Socrates  moderation  supplied  the 
place  of  wealth.  In  his  clothing  and  food  he  consulted  only 
the  demands  of  nature.  He  commonly  appeared  in  a  neat, 
but  plain  cloak,  with  his  feet  uncovered.  Though  his  table 
was  only  supplied  with  simple  fare,  he  did  not  scruple  to  invite 
men  of  superior  rank  to  partake  of  his  meals.  He  found  by 
experience  that  temperance  is  the  parent  of  health.  It  was 
owing  to  his  perfect  regularity  in  this  respect  that  he  escaped 
infection  in  the  midst  of  the  plague,  which  proved  so  fatal  to 
his  fellow-citizens. 

Socrates  was  a  great  admirer  of  a  fair  external  form,  a's  the 
index  of  a  mind  possessed,  or  at  least  capable,  of  moral  beauty, 
and  conversed  freely  with  young  persons,  of  both  sexes,  in 
order  to  assist  their  progress  in  wisdom  and  virtue  ;  but  his 
enemies  have  never  been  able  to  fix  upon  him  the  stain  of  in- 
continence. Modern  calumnies,  which  impute  to  this  great 
man  vices,  with  which  he  was  never  charged  by  his  contem- 
poraries, ought  to  be  treated  with  universal  contempt. 


322  SOCRATES. 

Though  Socrates  was  exceedingly  unfortunate  in  his  domes- 
tic connection,  he  converted  this  infelicity  into  an  occasion  of 
exercising  his  virtues.  Xanthippe,  concerning. whose  ill-humor 
ancient  writers  relate  many  amusing  tales,  was  certainly  a 
woman  of  a  high  and  unmanageable  spirit.  But  Socrates, 
whilst  he  endeavored  to  curb  the  violence  of  her  temper,  im- 
proved his  own.  When  Alcibiades  expressed  his  surprise  that 
his  friend  could  bear  to  live  in  the  same  house  with  so  per- 
verse and  quarrelsome  a  companion,  Socrates  replied,  "  That 
being  daily  inured  to  ill-humor  at  home,  he  was  the  better 
prepared  to  encounter  perverseness  and  injury  abroad."  After 
all,  however,  it  is  probable  that  the  infirmities  of  this  good 
woman  have  been  exaggerated,  and  that  calumny  has  had 
some  hand  in  finishing  her  picture ;  for  Socrates  himself,  in  a 
dialogue  with  his  son  Lamprocles,  allows  her  many  domestic 
virtues ;  and  we  find  her  afterwards  expressing  great  affection 
for  her  husband  during  his  imprisonment.  She  must  have 
been  as  deficient  in  understanding,  as  she  was  froward  in  dis- 
position, if  she  had  not  profited  by  the  daily  lessons  which  for 
twenty  years  she  received  from  such  a  master. 

In  the  midst  of  domestic  vexations  and  public  disorders, 
Socrates  retained  such  an  unruffled  serenity,  that  he  was  never 
seen  either  to  leave  his  own  house,  or  to  return  home,  with  a 
disturbed  countenance.  If  upon  any  occasion  he  felt  a  pro- 
pensity towards  anger,  he  checked  the  rising  storm  by  lower- 
ing the  tone  of  his  voice,  and  resolutely  assuming  a  more  than 
usual  gentleness  of  aspect  and  manner.  He  not  only  refrained 
from  acts  of  revenge,  but  triumphed  over  his  adversaries,  by 
despising  the  insults  and  injuries  which  they  offered  him.  In 
all  situations,  as  will  more  fully  appear  in  the  sequel,  he  exer- 
cised that  self-command  which  is  founded  on  virtuous  princi- 
ples, and  strengthened  by  reflection  and  habit. 

In  acquiring  this  entire  dominion  over  his  passions  and  ap- 
petites, Socrates  had  the  greater  merit,  as  it  was  not  effected 
without  a  violent  struggle  against  his  natural  propensities. 


SOCRATES.  323 

Zopyrus,  an  eminent  physiognomist,  declared  that  he  discover- 
ed in  the  features  of  the  philosopher  evident  traces  of  many 
vicious  inclinations.  The  friends  of  Socrates,  who  were  pres- 
ent, ridiculed  the  ignorance  of  this  pretender  to  extraordinary 
sagacity.  But  Socrates  himself  ingenuously  acknowledged  his 
penetration,  and  confessed  that  he  was,  in  his  natural  disposi- 
tion, prone  to  vice,  but  that  he  had  subdued  his  inclination  by 
the  power  of  reason  and  philosophy. 

Through  the  whole  course  of  his  life,  Socrates  gave  himself 
up  to  the  direction  of  the  divine  power  of  reason.  And  this 
is,  perhaps,  all  that  we  are  to  understand  by  the  genius,  or 
daemon,  which  is  said  to  have,  from  time  to  time,  given  him  in- 
struction ;  though  his  disciples,  who  admitted  the  ancient  doc- 
trine of  the  existence  of  dsemozis,  or  spirits  of  a  middle  order 
between  God  and  man,  probably  from  obscure  or  figurative  ex- 
pressions which  he  had  made  use  of,  imagined  that  there  was, 
in  this  matter,  something  supernatural ;  a  notion  which  they 
would  the  more  easily  admit,  and  be  the  more  ready  to  propa- 
gate, as  they  would  naturally  conceive  it  to  reflect  great  hon- 
or upon  the  memory  of  their  master.  It  is  possible,  indeed, 
that  Socrates  himself  might,  in  some  degree,  be  influenced  by 
superstitious  credulity  concerning  this  dtemon ;  for  it  is  ex- 
pressly attested  by  Xenophon  that  he  believed  that  the  Gods 
sometimes  communicate  to  men  the  knowledge  of  future 
©vents,  and  that  on  this  principle  he  encouraged  the  practice 
of  divination. 

It  was  one  of  the  maxims  of  Socrates,  "  that  a  wise  man 
will  worship  the  Gods  according  to  the  institutions  of 'the  state 
to  which  he  belongs."  He  taught,  however  a  doctrine  con- 
cerning religion  much  more  pure  and  rational  than  that 
which  was  delivered  to  the  people  by  the  priests,  and  he  rep- 
robated the  popular  fables  concerning  the  Gods.  Convinced 
of  the  weakness  of  the  human  understanding,  and  perceiving 
that  the  pride  of  philosophy  had  led  his  predecessors  into  fu- 
tile speculations  on  the  nature  and  origin  of  things,  he  judged 


324  SOCRATES. 

it  most  consistent  with,  true  wisdom  to  speak  with  caution 
and  reverence  concerning  the  divine  nature.  Nevertheless, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  whilst  he  did  not  deny  the  ex- 
istence of  inferior  divinities,  he  acknowledged  the  being  and 
providence  of  one  Supreme  Deity,  and  paid  homage,  with  a 
pious  mind,  to  the  Sovereign  Power. 

In  fine,  Socrates,  both  on  account  of  his  abilities  as  a  moral 
preceptor,  and  on  account  of  his  personal  merit,  unquestion- 
ably deserves  to  be  ranked  in  the  first  order  of  human  beings. 
"  The  man,"  says  Xenophon,  "  whose  memoirs  I  have  written, 
was  so  pious,  that  he  undertook  nothing  without  asking  coun- 
sel of  the  Gods ;  so  just,  that  he  never  did  the  smallest  inju- 
ry to  any  one,  but  rendered  essential  services  to  many  ;  so 
temperate,  that  he  never  preferred  pleasure  to  virtue ;  and  so 
wise,  that  he  was  able,  even  in  the  most  difficult  cases,  with- 
out advice,  to  judge  what  was  expedient  and  right.  He 
was  eminently  qualified  to  assist  others  by  his  counsel;  to 
penetrate  into  men's  characters  ;  to  reprehend  them  for  their 
vices  ;  and  to  excite  them  to  the  practice  of  virtue.  Having 
found  all  these  excellences  in  Socrates,  I  have  ever  esteemed 
him  the  most  virtuous,  and  the  happiest  of  men." 

The  wisdom  and  the  virtues  of  this  great  man,  whilst  they 
procured  him  many  followers,  also  created  him  many  enemies. 
There  were  at  this  time  in  Athens  a  large  body  of  professional 
preceptors  of  eloquence,  distinguished  by  the  appellation  of 
Sophists.  By  the  mere  pomp  of  words,  these  men  made  a 
magnificent  display  of  wisdom,  upon  a  slight  foundation  of 
real  knowledge ;  and  they  taught  an  artificial  structure  of 
language,  and  a  false  method  of  reasoning,  by  means  of  which 
they  were  able,  in  argument,  to  make  the  worse  appear  the  bet- 
ter cause.  At  the  same  time  that  they  arrogantly  assumed  to 
themselves  the  merit  of  every  kind  of  learning,  they  publicly 
practiced  the  art  of  disputing  with  plausibility  on  either  side 
of  any  question,  and  professed  to  teach  this  art  to  the  Athen- 
ian youth.  By  these  imposing  Dretensions  they  collected  in 


SOCRATES.  325 

their  schools,  a  numerous  train  of  young  men,  who  followed 
them  in  hope  of  acquiring  those  talents  which  would  give 
them  weight  and  authority  in  popular  assemblies.  In  such 
high  repute  were  these  Sophists,  that  they  were  liberally  sup- 
ported, not  only  by  contributions  from  their  pupils,  but  by  a 
regular  salary  from  the  State,  and  were  in  many  instances 
distinguished  by  public  honors,  and  employed  in  offices  of 
magistracy. 

That  such  systematical  provision  should  be  made  for  cor- 
rupting the  principles  and  taste  of  the  Athenian  youth,  was 
much  lamented  by  all  honest  men,  and  particularly  by  Soc- 
rates, whose  good  sense  revolted  against  every  idle  abuse  of 
language  and  pernicious  perversion  of  reason,  and  whose  pub- 
lic spirit  would  not  suffer  him  to  remain  an  inactive  specta- 
tor of  this  growing  evil.  In  order  to  dissipate  the  fascina- 
tion which  these  pretenders  to  wisdom  had  spread  over  the 
minds  of  youth,  Socrates  daily  employed  himself,  after  his  pe- 
culiar manner,  in  perplexing  them  with  questions,  which  were 
ingeniously  contrived  to  expose  their  ignorance  and  convince 
the  public  of  their  dishonesty.  The  result  was  that  the  Soph- 
ists began  to  be  deserted,  and  the  Athenian  youth  to  return 
to  the  love  and  pursuit  of  true  wisdom.  The  contest,  though 
salutary  to  Athens,  proved,  in  the  issue,  fatal  to  Socrates. 

The  Sophists,  finding  their  reputation  and  emoluments  daily 
declining,  became  inveterate  in  their  enmity  against  this  bold 
reformer,  and  eagerly  seized  every  occasion  of  exposing  him 
to  public  ridicule  or  censure.  Whilst  Socrates  was  prose'- 
cuting  his  design  of  instructing  the  Athenian  youth  with  h> 
creasing  reputation  and  success,  his  enemies  devised  an  expe- 
dient, by  means  of  which  they  hoped  to  check  the  current  of 
his  popularity.  They  engaged  Aristophanes,  the  first  buf- 
foon of  the  age,  to  write  a  comedy,  in  which  Socrates  should 
be  the  principal  character.  Aristophanes,  pleased  with  so 
prominent  an  occasion  of  displaying  his  low  and  malignant 
wit,  undertook  the  task,  and  produced  the  comedy  of  The 

28 


326  SOCRATES. 

Clouds,  still  extant  in  his  works.  In  this  piece  Socrates  is 
introduced  hanging  in  a  basket  in  the  air,  and  thence  pouring 
forth  absurdity  and  profaneness.  The  philosopher,  though 
he  seldom  visited  the  theatre,  except  when  the  tragedies  of 
Euripides  were  performed,  attended  the  representation  of  this 
play,  at  a  time  when  the  house  was  crowded  with  strangers, 
who  happened  to  be  at  Athens,  during  the  celebration  of  a 
Bacchanalian  festival.  When  the  performer  who  represented 
Socrates  appeared  upon  the  stage,  a  general  whisper  passed 
among  the  benches  on  which  the  strangers  sat,  to  inquire  who 
the  person  was  whom  the  poet  meant  to  satirize.  Socrates, 
who  had  taken  his  station  in  one  of  the  most  public  parts  of 
the  theatre,  observed  this  circumstance,  and  immediately, 
with  great  coolness,  rose  up,  to  gratify  the  curiosity  of  the 
audience,  and  continued  standing  during  the  remainder  of  the 
representation.  One  of  the  spectators,  astonished  at  the  mag- 
nanimity which  this  action  discovered,  asked  him  whether 
he  did  not  feel  himself  much  chagrined  to  be  thus  held  up  to 
public  derision  ?  "  By  no  means,"  replied  Socrates,  "  I  am  only 
a  host  at  a  public  festival,  where  I  provide  a  large  company 
with  entertainment."  It  is  related  that  when  Socrates  heard 
Plato  recite  his  Lysis,  he  said,  "  How  much  does  this  young 
man  make  me  say  which  I  never  conceived." 

The  Athenians,  who  had  always  a  strong  propensity  to  jeal- 
ousy and  detraction,  foolishly  suffered  themselves  to  be 
amused  by  this  infamous  libel  upon  the  first  character  in  their 
city.  But  the  seasonable  confidence  which  Socrates  discov- 
ered in  his  own  innocence  and  merit,  and  the  uniform  con- 
sistency and  dignity  of  his  conduct,  screened  him  for  the  pres- 
ent from  the  assaults  of  envy  and  malice.  "When  Aristoph- 
anes attempted,  the  year  following,  to  renew  the  piece  with 
alterations  and  additions,  the  representation  was  so  much 
discouraged  that  he  was  obliged  to  discontinue  it.  The  con- 
sequence was,  that  the  Sophists,  and  other  opponents  of  Soc- 
rates, who  appear  to  have  made  use  of  the  expedient  of  the- 


SOCRATES.  327 

atrical  representation  in  order  to  sound  the  inclinations  of 
the  public,  chose  to  postpone  the  further  prosecution  of  their 
malignant  intention  to  a  more  favorable  opportunity. 

From  this  time  Socrates  continued,  for  many  years,  to  pur- 
sue without  interruption,  his  laudable  design  of  instructing 
and  reforming  his  fellow-citizens.  At  length,  however,  when 
the  inflexible  integrity  with  which  he  had  discharged  the 
duty  of  a  senator,  and  the  firmness  with  which  he  had  op- 
posed every  kind  of  political  corruption  and  oppression,  both 
trader  the  democracy  and  the  oligarchy,  had  greatly  increased 
the  number  of  his  enemies,  the  conspiracy  which  had  long 
been  concerted  against  his  life  was  resumed.  After  the  dis- 
solution of  the  tyranny,  clandestine  arts  were  employed  to 
raise  a  general  prejudice  against  him.  The  people  were  in- 
dustriously reminded  that  Oritias,  who  had  been  one  of  the 
most  cruel  of  the  Thirty  Tyrants,  and  Alcibiades,  who  had 
insulted  religion  by  defacing  the  public  statues  of  Mercury, 
and  performing  a  mock  representation  of  the  Eleusinian  mys- 
teries, had  in  their  youth  been  disciples  of  Socrates. 

The  minds  of  the  people  being  thus  artfully  prepared  for 
the  sequel,  the  enemies  of  Socrates  preferred  a  direct  accusa- 
tion against  him  before  the  supreme  court  of  judicature.  His 
accusers  were  Anytus,  a  leather-dresser,  who  had  long  enter- 
tained a  personal  enmity  against  Socrates,  for  reprehending  his 
avarice,  in  depriving  his  sons  of  the  benefit  of  learning,  that 
they  might  pursue  the  gains  of  trade  ;  Melitns,  a  young  rheto- 
rician, who  was  capable  of  undertaking  anything  for  the  sake' 
of  gain,  and  Lycon,  who  was  glad  of  any  opportunity  of  dis- 
playing his  talents. 

This  charge  was  delivered  upon  oath  to  the  senate,  and  Crito, 
a  friend  of  Socrates,  became  surety  for  his  appearance  on  the 
day  of  trial.  Anytus  soon  afterwards  sent  a  private  message 
to  Socrates,  assuring  him,  that  if  he  would  desist  from  censuring 
his  conduct  he  would  withdraw  his  accusation.  But  Socrates 
refused  to  comply  with  so  degrading  a  condition,  and  with 


328  SOCRATES 

his  usual  spirit  replied,  u  Whilst  I  live  I  will  never  disguise 
the  truth,  nor  speak  otherwise  than  my  duty  requires."  The 
interval  between  the  accusation  and  the  trial  he  spent  in  phi- 
losophical conversations  with  his  friends,  choosing  to  discourse 
upon  any  other  subject  rather  than  his  own  situation.  Her- 
mogenes,  one  of  his  friends,  was  much  struck  with  this  cir- 
cumstance, and  asked  him  why  he  did  not  employ  his  time 
in  preparing  his  defence  ?  "  Because,"  replied  Socrates,  "  I 
nave  never  in  my  life  done  anything  unjust."  The  eminent 
orator  Lysias  composed  an  apology,  in  the  name  of  his  master, ' 
which  he  requested  him  to  adopt ;  but  Socrates  excused  him- 
self by  saying,  "  Though  it  is  eloquently  written,  it  will  not 
suit  my  character." 

When  the  day  of  trial  arrived,  his  accusers  appeared  in  the 
senate,  and  attempted  to  support  their  charge  in  three  dis- 
tinct speeches,  which  strongly  marked  their  respective  char- 
acters. Plato,  who  was  a  young  man,  and  a  zealous  follower 
of  Socrates,  then  rose  up  to  address  the  judges  in  defence  of 
his  master ;  but,  whilst  he  was  attempting  to  apologize  for 
his  youth,  he  was  abruptly  commanded  by  the  court  to  sit 
down.  Socrates,  however,  needed  no  advocate.  Ascending 
the  chair  with  all  the  serenity  of  conscious  innocence,  and  with 
all  the  dignity  of  superior  merit,  he  delivered,  in  a  firm  and 
manly  tone,  an  unpremeditated  defence  of  himself,  which 
silenced  his  opponents,  and  ought  to  have  convinced  his 
judges.  After  tracing  the  progress  of  the  conspiracy  which 
had  been  raised  against  him  to  its  true  source,  the  jealousy 
and  resentment  of  men  whose  ignorance  he  had  exposed,  and 
whose  vices  he  had  ridiculed  and  reproved,  he  distinctly  re- 
plied to  the  several  charges  brought  against  him  by  Melitus. 
To  prove  that  he  had  not  been  guilty  of  impiety  towards  the 
Gods  of  his  country,  he  appealed  to  his  frequent  practice  of 
attending  the  public  religious  festivals.  The  crime  of  intro- 
ducing new  divinities,  with  which  he  was  charged,  chiefly,  as 
it  seems,  on  the  ground  of  the  admonitions  which  he  professed 


SOCRATES.  329 

to  have  received  from  an  invisible  power,  he  disclaimed,  by 
pleading,  that  it  was  no  new  thing  for  men  to  consult  the  Gods, 
and  receive  instructions  from  them.  To  refute  the  charge  of 
his  having  been  a  corrupter  of  youth,  he  urged  the  example 
which  he  had  uniformly  exhibited  of  justice,  moderation,  and 
temperance,  the  moral  spirit  and  tendency  of  his  discourses, 
and  the  effect  which  had  actually  been  produced  by  his  doc- 
trine upon  the  manners  of  the  young.  Then,  disdaining  to 
solicit  the  mercy  of  his  judges,  he  called  upon  them  for  that 
justice,  which  their  office  and  their  oath  obliged  them  to  ad- 
minister, and  professing  his  faith  and  confidence  in  God,  re- 
signed himself  to  their  pleasure. 

The  judges,  whose  prejudices  would  not  suffer  them  to  pay 
due  attention  to  this  apology,  or  to  examine  with  impartiality 
the  merits  of  the  cause,  immediately  declared  him  guilty  of 
the  crimes  of  which  he  stood  accused.  Socrates,  in  this  stage 
of  the  trial,  had  a  right  to  enter  his  plea  against  the  punish- 
ment which  the  accusers  demanded,  and  instead  of  the  sentence 
of  death,  to  propose  some  pecuniary  amercement.  But  he  at 
first  peremptorily  refused  to  make  any  proposal  of  this  kind, 
imagining  that  it  might  be  construed  into  an  acknowledgment 
of  guilt,  and  asserted  that  his  conduct  merited  from  the  State 
reward  rather  than  punishment.  At  length,  however,  he 
was  prevailed  upon  by  his  friends  to  offer,  upon  their  credit,  a 
fine  of  thirty  mince.  The  judges,  notwithstanding,  still  re- 
mained inexorable  :  they  proceeded  without  further  delay,  to 
pronounce  sentence  upon  him  ;  and  he  was  condemned  to  be 
put  to  death  by  the  poison  of  hemlock.  Socrates  received  the 
sentence  with  perfect  composure,  and  by  a  smile  testified  his 
contempt  both  for  his  accusers  and  his  judges.  Then,  turning 
to  his  friends,  he  expressed  his  entire  satisfaction  im  the  recol- 
lection of  his  past  life,  and  declared  himself  firmly  persuaded 
that  posterity  would  do  so  much  justice  to  his  memory  as  to 
believe  that  he  had  never  injured  or  corrupted  any  one,  but 
had  spent  his  days  in  serving  his  fellow -citizens,  by  communi- 

28* 


330  SOCRATES. 

eating  to  them,  without  reward,  the  precepts  of  wisdom. 
Conversing  in  this  manner,  he  was  conducted  from  the  court 
to  the  prison,  which  he  entered  with  a  serene  countenance 
and  a  lofty  mind,  amidst  the  lamentations  of  his  friends. 

On  the  day  of  the  condemnation,  it  happened  that  the  ship, 
which  was  employed  to  carry  a  customary  annual  offering  to 
the  island  of  Delos,  set  sail.  It  was  contrary  to  the  law  of 
Athens,  that  during  this  voyage,  any  capital  punishment  should 
be  inflicted  within  the  city.  This  circumstance  delayed  the 
execution  of  the  sentence  against  Socrates  for  thirty  days.  So 
long  an  interval  of  painful  expectation,  however,  only  served 
to  afford  further  scope  for  the  display  of  his  constancy.  When 
his  friends  were  with  him,  he  conversed  with  his  usual  cheer- 
fulness. In  their  absence,  he  amused  himself  with  writing 
verses.  He  composed  a  hymn  in  honor  of  Apollo  and  Diana, 
and  versified  a  fable  of  JEsop.  His  friends,  still  anxious  to 
save  so  valuable  a  life,  urged  him  to  attempt  his  escape,  or  at 
least  to  permit  them  to  convey  him  away ;  and  Crito  Avent  so 
far  as  to  assure  him  that,  by  his  interest  with  the  jailer,  it 
might  be  easily  accomplished,  and  to  offer  him  a  retreat  in 
Thessaly ;  but  Socrates  rejected  the  proposal,  as  a  criminal 
violation  of  the  laws  ;  and  asked  them,  "  Whether  there  was 
any  place  out  of  Attica  which  death  could  not  reach." 

News  being  at  length  brought  of  the  return  of  the  ship  from 
Delos,  the  officers  to  whose  care  he  was  committed  delivered 
to  Socrates,  early  in  the  morning,  the  final  order  for  his  execu- 
tion, and  immediately,  according  to  the  law,  set  him  at  liberty 
from  his  bonds.  His  friends  who  came  early  to  the  prison, 
that  they  might  have  an  opportunity  of  conversing  with  their 
master  through  the  day,  found  his  wife  sitting  by  him  with  a 
child  in  her  arms.  As  soon  as  Xanthippe  saw  them  she  burst 
into  tears,  and  said,  "O  Socrates,  this  is  the  last  time  your 
friends  will  ever  speak  to  you,  or  you  to  them."  Socrates, 
t  hat  the  tranquilllity  of  his  last  moments  might  not  be  disturbed 
by  her  unavailing  lamentations,  requested  that  she  might  be 


SOCRATES.  331 

conducted  home.  With  the  most  frantic  expressions  of  grief, 
she  left  the  prison.  An  interesting  conversation  then  passed 
between  Socrates  and  his  friends,  which  chiefly  turned  upon 
the  immortality  of  the  soul.  In  the  course  of  this  conversa- 
tion Socrates  expressed  his  disapprobation  of  the  practice  of 
suicide,  and  assured  his  friends  that  his  chief  support  in  his 
present  situation,  was  an  expectation,  though  not  unmixed 
with  doubts,  of  a  happy  existence  after  death.  "  It  would  be 
inexcusable  in  me,"  said  he,  "  to  despise  death,  if  I  were  not 
persuaded  that  it  will  conduct  me  into  the  presence  of  the 
Gods,  who  are  the  most  righteous  governors,  and  into  the  so- 
ciety of  just  and  good  men;  but  I  derive  confidence  from  the 
hope  that  something  of  man  remains  after  death,  and  that  the 
condition  of  good  men  will  then  be  much  better  than  that  of 
the  bad."  Crito  afterwards  asking  him  in  what  manner  he 
wished  to  be  buried,  Socrates  replied  with  a  smile,  "  As  you 
please,  provided  I  do  not  escape  out  of  your  hands."  Then, 
turning  to  the  rest  of  his  friends,  he  said,  "  Is  it  not  strange, 
after  all  that  I  have  said  to  convince  you  that  I  am  going  to 
the  society  of  the  happy,  that  Crito  still  thinks  this  body, 
which  will  soon  be  a  lifeless  corpse,  to  be  Socrates  ?  Let  him 
dispose  of  my  body  as  he  pleases,  but  let  him  not,  at  its  inter- 
ment, mourn  over  it  as  if  it  were  Socrates." 

Towards  the  close  of  the  day  Socrates  retired  into  an  ad- 
joining apartment  to  bathe,  his  friends,  in  the  meantime,  ex- 
pressing to  one  another  their  grief  at  the  prospect  of  losing  so 
excellent  a  father,  and  being  left  to  pass  the  rest  of  their  days 
in  the  solitary  state  of  orphans.  After  a  short  interval,  dur- 
ing which  he  gave  some  necessary  instructions  to  his  domes- 
tics, and  took  his  last  leave  of  his  children,  the  attendant  of 
the  prison  informed  him  that  the  time  for  drinking  the  poison 
was  come.  The  executioner,  though  accustomed  to  such 
scenes,  shed  tears  as  he  presented  the  fatal  cup.  Socrates  re- 
ceived it  without  change  of  countenance,  or  the  least  appear- 
ance of  perturbation ;  then,  offering  up  a  prayer  to  the  Gods, 


332  SOCRATES. 

that  they  would  grant  him  s\  prosperous  passage  into  the  in 
visible  world,  with  perfect  composure  he  swallowed  the  poison- 
ous draught.  His  friends  around  him  burst  into  tears.  Socrates 
alone  remained  unmoved.  He  upbraided  their  pusillanimity, 
and  entreated  them  to  exercise  a  manly  constancy,  worthy  of 
the  friends  of  virtue.  He  continued  walking  till  the  chilling 
operation  of  the  hemlock  obliged  him  to  lie  down  upon  his 
bed.  After  remaining  for  a  .short  time  silent,  he  requested 
Crito  (probably  in  order  to  refute  a  calumny  which  might 
prove  injurious  to  his  friends  after  his  decease)  not  to  neglect 
the  offering  of  a  cock  which  he  had  vowed  to  Esculapius. 
Then  covering  himself  with  his  cloak,  he  expired.  Such  was 
the  fate  of  the  virtuous  Socrates !  "  A  story,"  says  Cicero, 
"  which  I  never  read  without  tears." 

The  friends  and  disciples  of  this  illustrious  teacher  of  wis- 
dom were  deeply  affected  by  his  death,  and  attended  his  funer- 
al with  every  expression  of  grief.  Apprehensive,  however, 
for  their  own  safety,  they  soon  afterwards  privately  withdrew 
from  the  city,  and  took  up  their  residences  in  distant  places. 
Several  of  them  visited  the  philosopher  Euclid,  of  Megara,  by 
whom  they  were  kindly  received. 

No  sooner  was  the  unjust  condemnation  of  Socrates  known 
through  Greece  than  a  general  indignation  was  kindled  in  the 
minds  of  good  men,  who  universally  regretted  that  so  distin- 
guished an  advocate  for  virtue  should  have  fallen  a  sacrifice  to 
jealousy  and  envy.  The  Athenians  themselves,  so  remarkable 
for  their  caprice,  who  never  knew  the  value  of  their  great 
men  till  after  their  death,  soon  became  sensible  of  the  folly,  as 
well  as  criminality,  of  putting  to  death  the  man  who  had 
been  the  chief  ornament  of  their  city,  and  of  the  age,  and 
turned  their  indignation  against  his  accusers.  Melitus  was  con- 
demned to  death,  and  Anytus,  to  escape  a  similar  fate,  went 
into  voluntary  exile.  To  give  a  further  proof  of  the  sincerity 
of  their  regret,  the  Athenians,  for  awhile,  interrupted  public 
business;  decreed  a  general  mourning;  recalled  the  exiled 


s  o  L  o  K  .  333 

friends  of  Socrates ;  and  erected  a  statue  to  his  memory  in  one 
of  the  most  frequented  parts  of  the  city.  His  death  happened 
in  the  first  year  of  the  ninety-sixth  Olympiad,  and  in  the 
seventieth  year  of  his  age. 


• 

SOLON. 

THIS  eminent  philosopher  flourished  about  the  year  597 
before  Christ.  Plutarch  gives  the  following  account  of  him  : 
His  father  having  injured  his  fortune  by  indulging  his  great 
and  munificent  spirit,  though  the  son  might  have  been  sup- 
ported by  his  friends,  yet  as  he  was  of  a  family  that  had  long 
been  assisting  others,  he  was  ashamed  to  accept  of  assist- 
ance himself;  and,  therefore,  in  his  younger  years,  applied 
himself  to  merchandise.  Some,  however,  say  that  he  trav- 
elled rather  to  gratify  his  curiosity,  and  extend  his  knowledge, 
than  to  raise  an  estate.  For  he  professed  his  love  of  wisdom, 
and  when  far  advanced  in  years,  made  this  declaration, — UI 
grow  old  in  the  pursuit  of  learning."  He  was  not  too  much 
attached  to  wealth,  as  we  may  gather  from  the  following 
verses: — 

The  man  that  boasts  of  golden  stores, 
Of  grain  that  loads  his  bending  floors, 
Of  fields  with  fresh'ning  herbage  green, 
Where  bounding  steeds  and  herds  are  seen, 
I  call  not  happier  than  the  swain, 
Whose  limbs  are  sound,  whose  food  is  plain, 
Whose  joys  a  blooming  wife  endears, 
Whose  hours  a  smiling  offspring  cheers. 

Yet,  in  a'  :other  place,  he  says — 

The  flow  of  riches,  though  desir'd, 
Life's  real  goods,  if  well  acquir'd, 
Unjustly  let  me  never  gain, 
Lest  vengeance  follow  in  their  train. 


334  SOLON. 

If  Solon  was  too  expensive  and  luxurious  in  his  way  of  liv 
ing,  and  indulged  his  poetical  vein  in  his  description  of  pleas 
ure  too  freely  for  a  philosopher,  it  is  imputed  to  his  mercan- 
tile life ;  for,  as  he  passed  through  many  and  great  dangers, 
he  might  surely  compensate  them  with  a  little  relaxation  and 
enjoyment.     But  that  he  placed  himself  rather  in  the  class  of 
the  poor  than  the  rich,  is  evident  from  these  lines : — 

For  vice,  though  Plenty  fills  her  horn, 
And  virtue  sinks  in  want  and  scorn  ; 
Yet  never,  sure,  shall  Solon  change 
His  truth  for  wealth's  most  easy  range ! 
Since  virtue  lives,  and  truth  shall  stand 
While  wealth  eludes  the  grasping  hand. 

He  seems  to  have  made  use  of  his  poetical  talent  at  first,  not 
for  any  serious  purpose,  but  only  for  amusement,  and  to  fill 
up  his  hours  of  leisure ;  but  afterwards  he  inserted  moral  sen- 
tences, and  interwove  many  political  transactions  in  his  poems, 
not  for  the  sake  of  recording  or  remembering  them,  but  some- 
times by  way  of  apology  for  his  own  administration,  and 
sometimes  to  exhort,  to  advise,  or  to  censure  the  citizens  of 
Athens.  Some  are  of  opinion,  that  he  attempted  to  put  his 
laws,  too,  in  verse;  and  they  give  us  this  beginning: — 

Supreme  of  Gods,  whose  power  we  first  address. 
This  plan  to  honor  and  these  laws  to  bless. 

Like  most  of  the  sages  of  those  times,  he  cultivated  chiefly 
that  part  of  moral  philosophy,  which  treats  of  civil  obliga- 
tions. His  physics  were  of  a  very  simple  and  ancient  cast,  as 
appears  from  the  following  lines : — 

From  cloudy  vapors  falls  the  treasur'd  snow, 
And  the  fierce  hail ;  from  lightning's  rapid  blaze 
Springs  the  loud  thunder — winds  disturb  the  deep, 
Than  whose  unruffled  breast  no  smoother  scene 
In  all  the  works  of  nature ! — 

We  have  a  particular  account  of  a  conversation  which  So- 
lon had  with  Anacharsis,  and  of  another  he  had  with  Thales. 


SOLON.  335 

Anacharsis  went  to  Solon's  house  at  Athens,  knocked  at  the 
door,  and  said, — "  He  was  a  stranger,  who  desired  to  enter 
into  engagements  of  friendship  and  mutual  hospitality  with 
him."  Solon  answered,  — "  Friendships  are  best  formed  at 
home."  "  Then  do  you,"  said  Anacharsis,  u  who  are  at  home, 
make  me  your  friend  and  receive  me  into  your  house." 
Struck  with  the  quickness  of  his  repartee,  Solon  gave  him  a 
kind  welcome,  and  kept  him  some  time  with  him,  being  then 
employed  in  public  affairs  and  in  modelling  his  laws.  When 
Anacharsis  knew  what  Solon  was  about,  he  laughed  at  his  un- 
dertaking, and  at  the  absurdity  of  imagining  he  could  restrain 
the  avarice  and  injustice  of  the  citizens  by  written  laws,  which 
in  all  respects  resembled  spider's  webs,  and  would,  like  them, 
only  entangle,  and  hold  the  poor  and  weak,  while  the  rich 
and  powerful  easily  broke  through  them.  To  this  Solon  re- 
plied, "  Men  keep  their  agreements,  when  it  is  an  advantage 
to  both  parties  not  to  break  them ;  and  he  would  so  frame 
his  laws,  as  to  make  it  evident  to  the  Athenians,  that  it  would 
be  more  for  their  interest  to  observe  them  than  to  transgress 
them."  The  event,  however,  showed  that  Anacharsis  was 
nearer  the  truth  in  his  conjecture,  than  Solon  was  in  his  hope. 
Anacharsis  having  seen  an  assembly  of  the  people  at  Athens, 
said — "  He  was  surprised  at  this,  that  in  Greece  wise  men 
pleaded  causes,  and  fools  determined  them." 

When  Solon  was  entertained  by  Thales  at  Miletus,  he  ex- 
pressed some  wonder  that  "  he  did  not  marry  and  raise  a 
family."  To  this  Thales  gave  no  immediate  answer ;  but 
some  days  after  he  instructed  a  stranger  to  say,  — "That  he 
came  from  Athens  ten  days  before."  Solon  inquiring,  u  What 
news  there  was  at  Athens?"  the  man,  according  to  his  in- 
structions, said, — "  None,  except  the  funeral  of  a  young  man, 
which  was  attended  by  the  whole  city  ;  for  he  was  the  son 
(as  they  told  me)  of  a  person  of  great  honor,  and  of  the  high- 
est reputation  for  virtue,  who  was  then  abroad  upon  his 
travels."  "  What  a  miserable  man  is  he,"  said  Solon  ;  "  but 


336  SOLON. 

what  was  his  name  ?"  "  I  have  heard  his  name,"  answered 
the  stranger,  "  but  do  not  recollect  it ;  all  I  remember  is,  that 
there  was  much  talk  of  his  wisdom  and  justice."  Solon, 
whose  apprehensions  increased  with  every  reply,  was  now 
much  disconcerted,  and  mentioned  his  own  name,  asking, — 
"  Whether  it  was  not  Solon's  son  that  was  dead  ?"  The 
stranger  answering  in  the  affirmative,  he  began  to  beat  his 
head,  and  to  do  and  say  such  things  as  are  usual  to  men  in  a 
transport  of  grief.*  Then  Thales,  taking  him  by  the  hand, 
said,  with  a  smile, — "  These  things  which  strike  down  so  firm 
a  man  as  Solon,  kept  me  from  marriage  and  from  having  chil- 
dren ;  but  take  courage,  my  good  friend,  for  not  a  word  of 
what  has  been  told  you  is  true."  Herrnippus  says,  he  took 
this  story  from  Patsecus,  who  used  to  boast  that  he  had  the 
soul  of  ^Esop. 

When  the  Athenians,  tired  out  with  a  long  and  troublesome 
war  against  the  Megarensians  for  the  isle  of  Salamis,  made  a 
law  that  no  one  for  the  future,  under  the  pain  of  death, 
should  either  by  speech  or  writing  propose  that  the  city  should 
assert  its  claim  to  that  island,  Solon  was  very  uneasy  at  so 
dishonorable  a  decree,  and  seeing  great  part  of  the  youth  de- 
sirous to  begin  the  war  again,  being  restrained  from  it  only  by 
fear  of  the  law,  he  feigned  himself  insane  ;t  and  a  report 
spread  from  his  house  into  the  city,  that  he  was  out  of  his 
senses.  Privately,  however,  he  had  composed  an  elegy,  and 
got  it  by  heart,  in  order  to  repeat  it  in  public ;  thus  prepared, 
he  sallied  out  unexpectedly  into  the  market-place  with  a  cap 

*  Whether  on  this  occasion,  or  on  the  real  loss  of  a  son,  is  uncertain,  Solon, 
being  desired  not  to  weep,  since  weeping  would  avail  nothing;  he  answered 
with  much  humanity  and  good  sense, — ;t  And  for  this  cause  I  weep." 

t  When  the  Athenians  were  delivered  from  their  fears  by  the  death  of  Epam- 
inondas,  they  began  to  squander  away  upon  shows  and  plays  the  money  that 
had  been  assigned  for  the  pay  of  the  army  and  navy,  and  at  the  same  time  they 
made  it  death  for  any  one  to  propose  a  reformation.  In  that  case,  Demosthenes 
did  not,  like  Solon,  attack  their  error  under  a  pretence  of  insanity,  but  boldly 
and  resolutely  spoke  against  it,  and  by  the  force  of  his  eloquence  brought  then 
to  correct  it. 


SOLON.  337 

upon  his  head.*  A  great  number  of  people  flocking  about 
him  there,  he  got  upon  the  herald's  stone,  and  sung  the  elegy 
which  begins  thus : — 

Hear  and  attend ;  from  Salamis  I  came 
To  show  your  error. 

This  composition  is  entitled  Salamis,  and  consists  of  a  hundred 
very  beautiful  lines.  When  Solon  had  done,  his  friends  began 
to  express  their  admiration,  and  Pisistratus  in  particular  ex- 
erted himself  in  persuading  the  people  to  comply  with  his 
directions ;  whereupon  they  repealed  the  law,  once  more  un- 
dertook the  war,  and  invested  Solon  with  the  command.  The 
common  account  of  his  proceedings  is  this  : — He  sailed  with 
Pisistratus  to  Colias,  and  having  seized  the  women,  who,  ac- 
cording to  the  custom  of  the  country,  were  oifering  sacrifice 
to  Ceres  there,  he  sent  a  trusty  person  to  Salamis,  who  was  to 
pretend  he  was  a  deserter,  and  to  advise  the  Megarensians,  if 
they  had  a  mind  to  seize  the  principal  Athenian  matrons,  to 
set  sail  immediately  for  Colias.  The  Megarensians  readily  em- 
bracing the  proposal,  and  sending  out  a  body  of  men,  Solon 
discovered  the  ship  as  it  put  off  from  the  island  ;  and  causing 
the  women  directly  to  withdraw,  ordered  a  number  of  young 
men  whose  faces  were  yet  smooth,  to  dress  themselves  in  their 
habits,  caps,  and  shoes.  Thus,  with  weapons  concealed  under 
their  clothes,  they  were  to  dance  and  play  by  the  sea-side  till 
the  enemy  was  landed,  and  the  vessel  near  enough  to  be 
seized.  Matters  being  thus  ordered,  the  Megarensians  were 
deceived  with  the  appearance,  and  ran  confusedly  on  shore, 
striving  which  should  first  lay  hold  on  the  women.  But  they 
met  with  so  warm  a  reception  that  they  were  cut  off  to  a 
man  ;  and  the  Athenians  embarking  immediately  for  Salamis, 
took  possession  of  the  island. 

Others  deny  that  it  was  recovered  in  this  manner,  and  tell 

*  None  wore  caps  but  the  sick. 

29 


338  SOLON. 

us,  that  Apollo,  being  first  consulted  at  Delphi,  gave  this  an- 
swer :•— 

Go,  first  propitiate  the  country's  chiefs 
Hid  in  ^Esopus'  Up  ;  who,  when  interr'd, 
Fac'd  the  declining  sun. 

Upon  this  Solon  crossed  the  sea  by  night,  and  offered  sacri- 
fices in  Salamis  to  the  heroes  Periphemus  and  Cichrens.  Then 
taking  five  hundred  Athenian  volunteers,  who  had  obtained 
a  decree,  that  if  they  conquered  the  island,  the  government 
of  it  should  be  invested  in  them,  he  sailed  with  a  number  of 
fishing-vessels  and  one  galley  of  thirty  oars  for  Salamis,  where 
he  cast  anchor  at  a  point  which  looks  towards  Euboea. 

The  Megarensians  that  were  in  the  place,  having  heard  a 
confused  report  of  what  had  happened,  betook  themselves  in 
a  disorderly  manner  to  arms,  and  sent  a  ship  to  discover  the 
enemy.  As  the  ship  approached  too  near,  Solon  took  it,  and 
securing  the  crew,  put  in  their  place  some  of  the  bravest  of 
the  Athenians,  with  orders  to  make  the  best  of  their  way  to 
the  city  as  privately  as  possible.  In  the  meantime,  with  the 
rest  of  his  men,  he  attacked  the  Megarensians  by  land,  and 
while  these  were  engaged,  those  from  the  ship  took  the  city. 
A  custom  which  obtained  afterwards  seems  to  bear  witness  to 
the  truth  of  this  account ;  for  an  Athenian  ship,  once  a-year, 
passed  silently  to  Salamis,  and  the  inhabitants  coming  down 
upon  it  with  noise  and  tumult,  one  man  in  armor  leaped  ashore, 
and  ran  shouting  towards  the  the  promontory  of  Sciradium, 
to  meet  those  who  were  advancing  by  land.  Near  that  place 
is  a  temple  of  Mars  erected  by  Solon  ;  for  there  it  was  that  ho 
defeated  the  Megarensians,  and  dismissed,  upon  certain  con- 
ditions, such  as  were  not  slain  in  battle. 

However,  the  people  of  Megara  persisted  in  their  claim,  till 
both  sides  had  severely  felt  the  calamities  of  war ;  and  then 
they  referred  the  affair  to  the  decision  of  the  Lacedemonians. 
Many  authors  relate  that  Solon  availed  himself  of  a  passage  in 
Homer's  catalfl  ^ue  of  ships,  which  he  alleged  before  the  arbi- 


SOLON.  339 

trators,  dexterously  inserting  a  line  of  his  own ;  for  to  tnis 
verse, 

Ajax  from  Salamis  twelve  ships  commands, 

he  is  said  to  have  added, 

And  ranks  his  forces  with  th'  Athenian  power. 

But  the  Athenians  look  upon  this  as  an  idle  story,  and  tell  us, 
that  Solon  made  it  appear  to  the  judges,  that  Philseus  and 
Eurysaces,  sons  of  Ajax,  being  admitted  by  the  Athenians  to 
the  freedom  of  their  city,  gave  up  the  island  to  them,  and  re- 
moved, the  one  to  Brauron,  and  the  other  to  Melite  in  Attica; 
likewise,  that  the  tribe  of  the  Philaidas,  of  which  Pisistratus 
was,  had  its  name  from  that  Philaaus.  He  brought  another 
argument  against  the  Megarensians  from  the  manner  of  bury- 
ing in  Salamis,  which  was  agreeable  to  the  custom  of  Athens, 
and  not  to  that  of  Megara ;  for  the  Megarensians  inter  the 
dead  with  their  faces  to  the  east,  and  the  Athenians  turn  theirs 
to  the  west.  On  the  other  hand,  Hereas  of  Megara  insists 
that  the  Megarensians  likewise  turn  the  faces  of  the  dead  to 
the  west ;  and  what  is  more,  that,  like  the  people  of  Salamis, 
they  put  three  or  four  corpses  in  one  tomb,  whereas  the  Athen- 
ians have  a  separate  tomb  for  each.  But  Solon's  cause  was 
further  assisted  by  certain  oracles  of  Apollo,  in  which  the 
island  was  called  Ionian  Salamis.  This  matter  was  determin- 
ed by  five  Spartans,  Critolaides,  Aiuompharetus,  Hypsechidas, 
Anaxilas,  and  Oleomenes. 

Solon  acquired  considerable  honor  and  authority  in  Athens 
by  this  affair ;  but  he  was  much  more  celebrated  among  the 
Greeks  in  general  for  negotiating  succors  for  the  temple  at 
Delphi,  against  the  insolent  and  injurious  behavior  of  the 
Cirrhseans,*  and  persuading  the  Greeks  to  arm  for  the  honor 

*  The  inhabitants  of  Cirrha,  a  town  seated  in  the  bay  of  Corinth,  after  having 
by  repeated  incursions  wasted  the  territory  of  Delphi,  besieged  the  city  itself, 
from  a  desire  of  making  themselTes  masters  of  the  riches  contained  in  the  temple 
of  Apollo.  Advice  of  this  being  sent  to  the  Amphictyons,  who  were  the  states- 
general  of  Greece,  Solon  advised  that  this  matter  should  be  universally  resented. 


340  SOLON. 

of  the  God.  At  his  motion  it  was  that  Lie  Amphictyons  de- 
clared war,  as  Aristotle,  among  others,  testifies,  in  his  book 
concerning  the  Pythian  games,  where  he  attributes  that  de- 
cree to  Solon. 

The  execrable  proceeding  against  the  accomplices  of  Cylon, 
had  long  occasioned  great  troubles  in  the  Athenian  state.  The 
conspirators  had  taken  sanctuary  in  Minerva's  temple  ;  but  Me- 
gacles, then  archon,  persuaded  them  to  quit  it,  and  stand  trial, 
under  the  notion  that  if  they  tied  a  thread  to  the  shrine  of  the 
goddess,  and  kept  hold  of  it,  they  would  still  be  under  her 
protection.  But  when  they  came  over  against  the  temple  of 
the  Furies,  the  thread  broke  of  itself;  upon  which  Megacles 
and  his  colleagues  rushed  upon  them,  and  seized  them,  as  if 
they  had  lost  their  privilege.  Such  as  were  out  of  the  temple 
were  stoned ;  those  that  fled  to  the  altars  were  cut  in  pieces 
there ;  and  they  only  were  spared  who  made  application  to 
the  wives  of  the  magistrates.  From  that  time  those  magis- 
trates were  called  execrable,  and  became  objects  of  the  pub- 
lic hatred.  The  remains  of  Cylon's  faction  afterwards  recov- 
ered strength,  and  kept  up  the  quarrel  with  the  descendants  of 
Megacles.  The  dispute  was  greater  than  ever,  and  the  two 
jarties  more  exasperated,  when  Solon,  whose  authority  was 
now  very  great,  and  others  of  the  principal  Athenians,  inter- 
posed, and  by  entreaties  and  arguments  persuaded  the  persons 
called  execrable  to  submit  to' justice  and  a  fair  trial,  before  three 

Accordingly,  Clisthenes,  tyrant  of  Sicyon,  was  sent  commander-in-chief  against 
the  Cirrhaeans ;  Alcmaeon  was  general  of  the  Athenian  quota  ;  and  Solon  went 
as  counsellor  or  assistant  to  Clisthenes.  When  the  Greek  army  had  besieged 
Cirrha  some  time,  without  any  great  appearance  of  success,  Apollo  was  con- 
sulted, who  answered,  that  they  should  not  bo  able  to  reduce  the  place  till  the 
waves  of  the  Cirrhaean  sea  washed  the  territories  of  Delphi.  This  answer  struck 
the  army  with  surprise ;  from  which  Solon  extricated  them,  by  advising  Clis- 
thenes to  consecrate  the  whole  territories  of  Cirrha  to  the  Delphic  Apollo, 
whence  it  would  follow  that  the  sea  must  wash  the  sacred  coast.  Pausanias 
(in  Pkocicis)  mentions  another  stratagem,  which  was  not  worthy  of  the  justice 
of  Solon.  Cirrha,  however,  was  taken,  and  became  henceforth  the  arsenal  of 
of  Delphi. 


SOLON.  341 

hundred  judges  selected  from  the  nobility.  Myron,  of  the 
PJiylensian  ward,  carried  on  the  impeachment,  and  they  were 
condemned.  As  many  as  were  alive,  were  driven  into  exile; 
and  the  bodies  of  the  dead  dug  up  and  cast  out  beyond 
the  borders  of  Attica.  Amidst  these  disturbances,  the  Mega- 
rensians  renewed  the  war,  took  Nisse  from  the  Athenians,  and 
recovered  Salamis  once  more. 

About  this  time  the  city  was  likewise  afflicted  with  super- 
stitious fears  and  strange  appearances ;  and  the  soothsayers  de- 
clared, that  there  were  certain  abominable  crimes,  which 
wanted  expiation,  pointed  out  by  the  entrails  of  the  victims. 
Upon  this  they  sent  to  Crete  for  Epimenides  the  Phcestian* 
who  is  reckoned  the  seventh  among  the  wise  men,  by  those 
that  do  not  admit  Periander  into  the  number.  He  was  reputed 
a  man  of  great  piety,  and  loved  by  the  Gods,  and  skilled  in  mat- 
ters of  religion,  particularly  in  what  related  to  inspiration  and 
the  sacred  mysteries  ;  therefore  the  men  of  those  days  called 
him  the  son  of  nymph  Balte,  and  one  of  the  Ouretes  revived. 
"When  he  arrived  at  Athens,  he  contracted  a  friendship  with 
Solon,  and  privately  gave  him  considerable  assistance,  prepar- 
ing the  way  for  the  reception  of  his  laws.  For  he  taught  the 
Athenians  to  be  more  frugal  in  their  religious  worship,  and 
more  moderate  in  their  mourning,  by  intermixing  certain  sac- 
rifices with  the  funeral  solemnities,  and  abolishing  the  cruel 
and  barbarous  customs  that  had  generally  prevailed  among 

*  This  Epimenides  was  a  very  extraordinary  person.  Diogenes  Laertius  tells 
us,  that  he  was  the  inventor  of  the  art  of  lustrating  or  purifying  houses,  fields, 
and  persons  ;  which,  if  spoken  of  Greece,  may  be  true  ;  but  Moses  had  long  be- 
fore taught  the  Hebrews  something  of  this  nature. — (Vide  Levit.  xvi.)  Epi- 
menides took  some  sheep  that  were  all  black,  and  others  that  were  all  white ; 
these  he  led  into  the  Areopagus,  and  turning  them  loose,  directed  certain  persons 
to  follow  them,  who  should  mark  where  they  couched,  and  there  sacrifice  them 
to  the  local  diety.  This  being  done,  altars  were  erected  in  all  these  places  to 
perpetuate  the  memory  of  this  solemn  expiation.  There  were,  however,  other 
ceremonies  practiced  for  the  purpose  of  lustration,  of  which  Tizetzes,  in  his  poet- 
ical chronicle,  gives  a  particular  account,  but  which  are  too  trifling  to  be  men- 
tioned here. 

29* 


342  SOLON. 

the  women  before.  What  is  of  still  greater  consequence,  by 
expiations,  lustrations,  and  the  erecting  of  temples  and  shrines, 
he  hallowed  and  purified  the  city,  and  made  the  people  more 
observant  of  justice,  and  more  inclined  to  union. 

When  he  had  seen  Munychia,  and  considered  it  some  time, 
he  is  reported  to  have  said  to  those  about  him,*  u  How  blind 
is  man  to  futurity !  If  the  Athenians  could  foresee  what 
trouble  that  place  will  give  them,  they  would  tear  it  in  pieces 
with  their  teeth  rather  than  it  should  stand."  Something 
similar  to  this  is  related  of  Thales  ;  for  he  ordered  the  Mile- 
sians to  bury  him  in  a  certain  recluse  and  neglected  place,  and 
foretold,  at  the  same  time,  that  their  market-place  would  one 
day  stand  there.  As  for  Epimenides,  he  was  held  in  admira- 
tion at  Athens ;  great  honors  were  paid  him,  and  many  val- 
uable presents  made;  yet  lie  would  accept  of  nothing  but 
a  branch  of  the  sacred  olive,  which  they  gave  him  at  his  re- 
quest ;  and  with  that  he  departed. 

When  the  troubles  about  Oylon's  affairs  were  over,  and  the 
sacrilegious  persons  removed  in  the  manner  we  have  mention- 
ed, the  Athenians  relapsed  into  their  old  disputes  concerning 
the  government ;  for  there  were  as  many  parties  among  them 
as  there  were  different  tracts  of  land  in  their  country.  The 
inhabitants  of  the  mountainous  part  were,  it  seems,  for  a  de- 
mocracy ;  those  of  the  plains  for  an  oligarchy ;  and  those  of 
the  sea-coasts,  contending  for  a  mixed  kind  of  government, 
hindered  the  other  two  from  gaining  their  point.  At  the 
same  time,  the  inequality  between  the  poor  and  the  rich  oc- 
casioned the  greatest  discord  ;  and  the  State  was  in  so  danger- 

*  This  prediction  was  fulfilled  270  years  after,  when  Antipater  constrained 
tbe  Athenians  to  admit  his  garrison  into  that  place.  Besides  this  prophecy, 
Epimenides  uttered  another  during  his  stay  at  Athens ;  for  hearing  that  the 
citizens  were  alarmed  at  the  progress  of  the  Persian  power  at  sea,  he  advised 
them  to  make  themselves  easy,  for  that  the  Persians  would  not  for  many  years 
attempt  anything  against  the  Greeks,  and  when  they  did,  they  would  receive 
greater  loss  themselves  than  they  would  be  able  to  bring  upon  the  States  they 
thought  to  destroy.— Laert.  in  Vitd  et  Rimcn. 


B  O  L  O  N  .  343 

ons  a  situation,  that  there  seemed  to  be  no  way  to  quell  the 
seditious,  or  to  save  it  from  ruin,  but  changing  it  to  a  monarchy. 
So  greatly  were  the  poor  in  debt  to  the  rich,  that  they  were 
obliged  either  to  pay  them  a  sixth  part  of  the  produce  of 
the  laud  (whence  they  were  called  Hectemorii  and  Thetes),  or 
else  to  engage  their  persons  to  their  creditors,  who  might 
seize  them  on  failure  of  payment.  Accordingly,  some  made 
slaves  of  them,  and  others  sold  them  to  foreigners.  Nay,  some 
parents  were  forced  to  sell  their  own  children  (for  no  law  for- 
bade it),  and  to  quit  the  city,  to  avoid  the  severe  treatment  of 
those  usurers.  But  the  greater  number,  and  men  of  the  most 
spirit,  agreed  to  stand  by  each  other,  and  to  bear  such  imposi- 
tions no  longer.  They  determined  to  choose  a  trusty  person  for 
their  leader,  to  deliver  those  who  had  failed  in  their  time  of 
payment,  to  divide  the  land,  and  to  give  an  entire  new  face 
to  the  commonwealth. 

Then  the  most  prudent  of  the  Athenians  cast  their  eyes  up- 
on Solon,  as  a  man  least  obnoxious  to  either  party,  having 
neither  been  engaged  in  oppressions  with  the  rich,  nor  en- 
tangled in  necessities  with  the  poor.     Him,  therefore,  they 
entreated  to  assist  the  public  in  this  exigency,  and  to  com- 
pose these  differences.     Phanias,  the  Lesbian,  asserts,  indeed, 
that  Solon,  to  save  the  State,  dealt  artfully  with  both  par- 
ties, and  privately  promised  the  poor  a  division  of  the  lands, 
and  the  rich  a  confirmation  of  their  securities.     At  first  he 
was  loth  to  take  the  administration  upon  him,  by  reason  of 
the  avarice  of  some,  and  the  insolence  of  others;  but  was, 
however,  chosen  archon  next  after  Philombrotus,  and  at  the 
same  time  arbitrator  and  lawgiver  ;  the  rich  accepting  of  him 
readily  as  one  of  them,  and  the  poor  as  a  good  and  worthy 
man.     They  tell  US',  too,  that  a  saying  of  his,  which  he  had 
let  fall  some  time  before,  that — u  equality  causes  no  war,"  was 
then  much  repeated,  and  pleased  both  the  rich  and  the  poor ; 
the  latter  expecting  to  come  to  a  balance  by  their  numbers 
ami  by  the  measure  of  divided  lands,  and  the  former  to  pre- 


344  SOLON. 

serve  an  equality  at  least  by  their  dignity  and  power.  Thus 
both  parties  being  in  great  hopes,  the  heads  of  them  were  ur- 
gent with  Solon  to  make  himself  king,  and  endeavored  to 
persuade  him  that  he  might  with  better  assurance  take  upon 
him  the  direction  of  a  city  where  he  had  the  supreme  author- 
ity. Nay,  many  of  the  citizens  that  leaned  to  neither  party, 
seeing  the  intended  change  difficult  to  be  effected  by  reason 
and  law,  were  not  against  the  entrusting  of  the  government 
to  the  hands  of  one  wise  and  just  man.  Some,  moreover, 
acquaint  u-s,  that  he  received  this  oracle  from  Apollo : — 

Seize,  seize  the  helm,  the  reeling  vessel  guide, 
With  aiding  patriots  stem  the  raging  tide. 

His  friends,  in  particular,  told  him  it  would  appear  that  he 
wanted  courage,  if  he  rejected  the  monarchy  for  fear  of  the 
name  of  tyrant,  as  if  the  sole  and  supreme  power  would  not 
soon  become  a  lawful  sovereignty  through  the  virtues  of  him 
that  received  it.  Thus  formerly  (said  they)  the  Eubceans  set 
up  Tynnondas,  and  lately  the  Mitylenoeans  Pittacus  for  their 
prince.  None  of  these  things  moved  Solon  from  his  pur- 
pose ;  and  the  answer  he  is  said  to  have  given  to  his  friends 
is  this : — "  Absolute  monarchy  is  a  fair  field,  but  it  has  no 
outlet."  And  in  one  of  his  poems  he  thus  addresses  himself 
to  his  friend  Phocus  : — 

If  I  spar'd  my  country, 

If  gilded  violence  and  tyrannic  sway 

Could  never  charm  me,  thence,  no  shame  accrues ; 

Still  the  mild  honor  of  my  name  I  boast, 

And  find  my  empire  there. 

"Whence  it  is  evident  that  his  reputation  was  very  great  be- 
fore he  appeared  in  the  character  of  a  legislator.  As  for  the 
ridicule  he  was  exposed  to  for  rejecting  kingly  power,  he  has 
described  it  in  the  following  verses  : — 

Nor  wisdom's  palm,  nor  deep  laid  policy 
Can  Solon  boast ;  for  when  its  noblest  blessings 
Heaven  pour'd  into  his  lap,  he  spuru'd  them  from  him. 
Where  was  his  g*r.*e  and  spirit,  when  enclosed 


SOLON.  345 

He  found  the  choicest  prey,  nor  deign'd  to  draw  it  ? 
Who,  to  command  fair  Athens  but  one  day, 
Would  not  himself,  with  all  his  race,  have  fallen- 
Contented  en  the  morrow  ? 

Thus  he  has  introduced  the  multitude  and  men  of  low  minds 
as  discoursing  about  him.  But  though  he  rejected  absolute 
power,  he  proceeded  with  spirit  enough  in  the  administration. 
He  did  not  make  any  concessions  in  behalf  of  the  powerful, 
nor,  in  the  framing  of  his  laws,  did  he  indulge  the  humor  of 
his  constituents.  Where  the  former  establishment  was  toler- 
able, he  neither  applied  remedies,  nor  used  the  incision  knife, 
lest  he  should  put  the  whole  in  disorder,  and  not  have  power 
to  settle  or  compose  it  afterwards  in  the  temperature  he  could 
wish.  He  only  made  such  alterations  as  he  might  bring  the 
people  to  acquiesce  in  by  persuasion,  or  compel  them  to  by 
his  authority,  making  (as  he  says) — "  force  and  right  con- 
spire." Hence  it  was,  that  having  the  question  afterwards 
put  to  him, — u  "Whether  he  had  provided  the  best  of  laws  for 
the  Athenians  ?"  he  answered, — "  The  best  they  were  capable 
of  receiving."  And  as  the  moderns  observe,  that  the  Athen- 
ians used  to  qualify  the  harshness  of  things  by  giving  them 
softer  and  politer  names,  calling  whores  mistresses,  tributes  con- 
tributions, garrisons  guards,  and  prisons  castles ;  so  Solon 
seems  to  be  the  first  that  distinguished  the  cancelling  of  debts 
by  the  name  of  a  discharge.  For  this  was  the  first  of  his 
public  acts,  that  debts  should  be  forgiven,  and  that  no  man 
for  the  future  should  take  the  body  of  his  debtor  for  security. 
Though  Androtion  and  some  others  say,  that  it  was  not  by  the 
cancelling  of  debts,  but  by  moderating  the  interest,  that  the 
poor  were  relieved,  they  thought  themselves  so  happy  in  it, 
that  they  gave  the  name  of  discharge  to  this  act  of  humanity, 
as  well  as  to  the  enlarging  of  measures  and  the  value  of 
money,  which  went  along  with  it.  For  he  ordered  the  mime, 
which  before  went  but  for  seventy-three  drachmas,  to  go  for 
a  hundred  ;  so  that,  as  they  paid  the  same  in  value,  but  much 


346  SOLON. 

less  in  weight,  those  that  had  great  sums  to  pay  were  relieved, 
while  such  as  received  them  were  no  losers. 

The  greater  part  of  writers,  however,  affirm,  that  it  was 
the  abolition  of  past  securities  that  was  called  a  discharge ; 
and  with  these  the  poems  of  Solon  agree ;  for  in  them  he  val- 
ues himself  on — "  having  taken  away  the  marks  of  mort- 
gaged land,*  which  before  were  almost  everywhere  set  up, 
and  made  free  those  fields  which  before  were  bound!"  and 
not  only  so,  but — "  of  such  citizens  as  were  seizable  by  their 
creditors  for  debt,  some,"  he  tells  us,  "  he  had  brought  back 
from  other  countries  where  they  had  wandered  so  long,  that 
they  had  forgot  the  Attic  dialect,  and  others  he  had  set  at 
liberty  who  had  experienced  a  cruel  slavery  at  home." 

This  affair,  indeed,  brought  upon  him  the  greatest  trouble 
he  met  with  ;  for  when  he  undertook  the  annulling  of  debts, 
and  was  considering  of  a  suitable  speech,  and  a  proper  method 
of  introducing  the  business,  he  told  some  of  his  most  intimate 
friends,  namely  Oonon,  Clinias,  and  Hipponicus,  that  he  in- 
tended only  to  abolish  the  debts,  and  not  to  meddle  with  the 
lands.  These  friends  of  his  hastening  to  make  their  advan- 
tage of  the  secret  before  the  decree  took  place,  borrowed 
large  sums  of  the  rich,  and  purchased  estates  with  them.  Af- 
terwards, when  the  decree  was  published,  they  kept  their 
possessions,  without  paying  the  money  they  had  taken  up ; 
which  brought  great  reflections  upon  Solon,  as  if  he  had  not 
been  imposed  upon  with  the  rest,  but  rather  an  accomplice  in 
the  fraud.  This  charge,  however,  was  soon  removed,  by  his 
being  the  first  to  comply  with  the  law,  and  remitting  a  debt 
of  five  talents,  which  he  had  out  at  interest.  Others,  among 
whom  is  Polyzelus  the  Rhodian,  say  it  was  fifteen  talents. 
But  his  friends  went  by  the  name  of  Chreocopidce,  or  debt- 
cutters,  ever  after. 

The  method  he  took  satisfied  neither  the  poor  nor  the  rich. 

*  The  Athenians  had  a  custom  of  fixing  up  billets,  to  show  that  houses  or 
lands  were  mortgaged. 


SOLON.  347 

The  latter  were  displeased  by  the  cancelling  of  their  bonds, 
and  the  former  at  not  finding  a  division  of  lands.  Upon  this 
they  had  fixed  their  hopes  ;  and  they  complained  that  he  had 
not,  like  Lycurgus,  made  all  the  citizens  equal  in  estate.  Ly- 
curgus,  however,  being  the  eleventh  from  Hercules,  and  hav- 
ing reigned  many  years  in  Lacedaamon,  had  acquired  great 
authority,  interest,  and  friends,  of  which  he  knew  very  well 
how  to  avail  himself  in  setting  up  a  new  form  of  government ; 
yet  he  was  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  force  rather  than  per- 
suasion, and  had  an  eye  struck  out  in  the  dispute,  before  he 
could  bring  it  to  a  lasting  settlement,  and  establish  such  an 
union  and  equality  as  left  neither  rich  nor  poor  in  the  city. 
On  the  other  hand,  Solon's  estate  was  but  moderate,  not  su- 
perior to  that  of  some  commoners,  and,  therefore,  he  attempt- 
ed not  to  erect  such  a  commonwealth  as  that  of  Lycurgus, 
considering  it  as  out  of  his  power ;  he  proceeded  as  far  as  he 
thought  -he  could  be  supported  by  the  confidence  the  people 
had  in  his  probity  and  wisdom. 

That  he  answered  not  the  expectations  of  the  generality, 
but  offended  them  by  falling  short,  appears  from  these  verses 
of  his : — 

Those  eyes,  with  joy  once  sparkling  when  they  view'd  me, 
With  cold  oblique  regard  behold  me  now. 

And  a  little  after, — 

Yet  who  but  Solon 

Could  have  spoke  peace  to  their  tumultuous  waves, 
And  not  have  sunk  beneath  them  ? 

But  being  soon  sensible  of  the  utility  of  the  decree,  they  laid 
aside  their  complaints,  offered  a  public  sacrifice,  which  they 
called  seigaethia,  or  the  sacrifice  of  the  discharge,  and  consti- 
tuted Solon  lawgiver  and  superintendent  of  the  common- 
wealth ;  committing  to  him  the  regulation  not  of  a  part  only, 
but  the  whole — magistracies,  assemblies,  courts  of  judicature, 
and  senate/  and  leaving  him  to  determine  the  qualification, 


348  SOLON. 

number,  and  time  of  meeting  for  them  all,  as  well  as  to  abro 
gate  or  continue  the  former  constitution  at  his  pleasure. 

First,  then,  he  repealed  the  laws  of  Draco,  except  those 
concerning  murder,  because  of  the  severity  of  the  punishments 
they  appointed :  which  for  almost  all  offences  were  capital ; 
even  those  that  were  convicted  of  idleness  were  to  suffer  death, 
and  such  as  stole  only  a  few  apples  or  pot-herbs,  were  to  be 
punished  in  the  same  manner  as  sacrilegious  persons  and  mur- 
derers. Hence  a  saying  of  Demades,  who  lived  long  after, 
was  much  admired, — "  That  Draco  wrote  his  laws  not  with 
ink,  but  with  blood."  And  he  himself  being  asked,  "  Why 
he  made  death  the  punishment  for  most  offences  ?"  answered, 
"  Small  ones  deserve  it,  and  I  can  find  no  greater  for  the  most 
heinous." 

In  the  next  place,  Solon  took  an  estimate  of  the  estates  of 
the  citizens ;  intending  to  leave  the  great  offices  in  the  hands 
of  the  rich,  but  to  give  the  rest  of  the  people  a  share  in  other 
departments  which  they  had  not  before.  Such  as  had  a  yearly 
income  of  five  hundred  measures  of  wet  and  dry  goods,  he 
placed  in  the  first  rank,  and  called  them  Pentacosiomedimni* 
The  second  consisted  of  those  that  could  keep  a  horse,  or 
whose  lands  produced  three  hundred  measures  ;  these  were  of 
the  equestrian  order,  and  called  Hippoda  telountes.  And  those 
of  the  third  class,  who  had  but  two  hundred  measures,  were  call- 
ed Zeugitce.  The  rest  were  named  Thetes,  and  not  admitted  to 
any  office;  they  had  only  a  right  to  appear  and  give  their 
vote  in  the  general  assembly  of  the  people.  This  seemed  a-t 
first  but  a  slight  privilege,  but  afterwards  showed  itself  a  inat- 

*  The  Pentacosiomcdimni  paid  a  talent  to  the  public  treasury ;  the  Hippoda 
telountes,  as  the  word  signifies,  were  obliged  to  find  a  horse,  and  to  serve  as 
cavalry  in  the  wars ;  the  Zeugita  were  so  called,  as  being  of  a  middle  rank  be- 
tween the  knights  and  those  of  the  lowest  order  (for  rowers  who  have  the  middle 
bench  between  the  Thalamites  and  the  Thranites,  are  called  Zeugitai) ;  and 
though  the  Thetes  had  barely  each  a  vote  in  the  general  assemblies,  yet  that 
(as  Plutarch  observes)  appeared  in  time  to  be  a  great  privilege,  most  causes  being 
brought  by  appeal  before  the  people. 


SOLON.  349 

ter  of  great  importance  ;  for  most  causes  came  at  last  to  be  de- 
cided by  them ;  and  in  such  matters  as  were  under  the  cogni- 
zance of  the  magistrates,  there  lay  an  appeal  to  the  people. 
Besides,  ho  is  said  to  have  drawn  up  his  laws  in  an  obscure  and 
ambigious  manner,  on  purpose  to  enlarge  the  authority  of  the 
popular  tribunal ;  for  as  they  could  not  adjust  their  difference 
by  the  letter  of  the  law,  they  were  obliged  to  have  recourse  to 
living  judges;  I  mean  the  whole  body  of  citizens,  who,  there- 
fore, had  all  controversies  brought  before  them,  and  were  in  a 
manner  superior  to  the  laws.  Of  this  equality,  he  himself 
takes  notice  in  these  words : — 

By  me  the  people  held  their-  native  rights 
Uninjur'd  unoppress'd— The  great  restrain'd 
From  lawless  violence,  and  the  poor  from  rapine, 
By  me,  their  mutual  shield. 

Desirous  yet  further  to  strengthen  the  common  people,  he  em- 
powered any  man  whatever  to  enter  an  action  for  one  that 
was  injured.  If  a  person  was  assaulted,  or  suffered  damage  or 
violence,  another  that  was  able  and  willing  to  do  it  might  pros- 
ecute the  offender.  Thus  the  lawgiver  wisely  accustomed  the 
citizens,  as  members  of  one  body,  to  feel  and  to  resent  one 
another's  injuries.  And  we  are  told  of  a  saying  of  his  agree- 
able to  this  law ;  being  asked, — "  What  city  was  best  model- 
led?" he  answered ; — "  That,  where  those  who  are  not  injured, 
are  no  less  ready  to  prosecute  and  punish  offenders,  than  those 
who  are." 

"When  these  points  were  adjusted,  he  established  the  council 
of  the  areopagus*  which  was  to  consist  of  such  as  had  borne 

*  The  court  of  areopagus,  though  settled  long  before,  had  lost  much  of  its 
power  by  Draco's  preferring  the  ephetse.  In  ancieut  times,  and  till  Solon  be- 
came legislator,  it  consisted  of  such  persons  as  were  most  conspicuous  in  the 
state  for  their  wealth,  power,  and  probity  ;  but  Solon  made  it  a  rule,  that  such 
only  should  have  a  seat  in  it  as  had  borne  the  office  of  archon.  This  had  the  effect 
he  designed  ;  it  raised  the  reputation  of  the  areopagitcs  very  high,  and  rendered 
their  decrees  so  venerable,  that  none  contested  or  repined  at  them  through  a 
long  course  of  ages. 

30 


350  SOLON. 

the   office  of  archon*  and  himself  was   one  of  the  number. 
But    observing  that    the  people,  now  discharged  from   their 
del  ts,  grew  insolent  and  imperious,  he  proceeded  to  constitute 
another  council  or  senate,  of  four  hundred,  a  hundred  out  of 
each  tribe,  by  whom  all  affairs  were  to  be  previously  consider- 
ed ;  and  ordered  that  no  matter,  without  their  approbation, 
should  be  laid  before  the  general  assembly.     In  the  meantime, 
the  high  court  of  the  areopagus  were  to  be  the  inspectors  and 
guardians  of  the  laws.     Thus  he  supposed  the  commonwealth, 
secured  by  two  councils,  as  by  two  anchors,  would  be  less  lia- 
ble to  be  shaken  by  tumults,  and  the  people  would  become 
more  orderly  and  peaceable.     Most  writers,  as  we  have  ob- 
served, affirm,  that  the  council  of  the  areopagus  was  of  Solon's 
appointing ;  and  it  seems  greatly  to  confirm  their  assertion, 
that  Draco   has  made  no  mention  of  the  areopagites,  but  in 
capital  causes  constantly  addressed  himself  to  the  ephetce ;  yet 
the  eighth  law  of  Solon's  thirteenth  table  is  set  down  in  these 
very  words  : — "  Whoever  were  declared  infamous  before  So- 
lon's archonship,  let  them  be  restored  in  honor,  except  such  as 
having  been  condemned  in  the  areopagus,  or  by  the   ephetae, 
or  by  the  kings  in  the  Prytaneum,  for  murder  or  robbery,  or 
attempting  to  usurp  the  government,  had  fled  their  country 
before  this  law  was  made."     This  on  the  contrary  shows,  that 
before  Solon  was  chief  magistrate,  and  delivered  his  laws,  the 
council  of  the  areopagus  was  in  being ;  for  who  could  have 
been  condemned  in  the  areopagus  before  Solon's  time,  if  he 
was  the  first  that  erected  it  into  a  court  of  judicature  ?     Un- 
less, perhaps,  there  be  some    obscurity  or  deficiency  in   the 

*  After  the  extinction  of  the  race  of  the  Medoutidae,  the  Athenians  made  the 
office  of  archon  annual ;  and  instead  of  one,  they  created  nine  archons.  By 
the  latter  expedient,  they  provided  against  the  too  great  power  of  a  single  per- 
son, as  by  the  former  they  took  away  all  apprehension  of  the  archons  setting 
up  for  sovereigns.  In  one  word,  they  attained  now  what  they  had  lone;  sought 
— the  making  their  supreme  magistrate  dependent  on  the  people.  This  remark- 
able era  of  the  completion  of  the  Athenian  democracy  was,  according  to  the 
Marmora,  in  the  first  year  of  the  xvivth  Olympiad,  before  Christ  684. 


SOLON.  351 

text,  and  the  meaning  be,  that  such  as  have  been  convicted  of 
crimes  that  are  now  cognizable  before  the  areopagus,  iheephetc^ 
and  prytanes,  shall  continue  infamous,  while  others  are  restor- 
ed. But  this  I  submit  to  the  judgment  of  the  reader. 

The  most  peculiar  and  surprising  of  his  other  laws,  is  that 
which  declares  the  man  infamous  who  stands  neuter  in  time 
of  sedition.f  It  seems  he  would  not  have  us  be  indifferent 
and  unaffected  with  the  fate  of  the  public,  when  our  own  con- 
cerns are  upon  a  safe  bottom ;  nor  when  we  are  in  health,  be 
insensible  to  the  distempers  and  griefs  of  our  country.  He 
would  have  us  espouse  the  better  and  juster  cause,  and  hazard 
everything  in  defence  of  it,  rather  than  wait  in  safety  to  see 
which  side  the  victory  will  incline  to.  That  law,  too,  seems 
quite  ridiculous  and  absurd,  which  permits  a  rich  heiress, 
whose  husband  happens  to  be  impotent,  to  console  herself 
with  his  nearest  relations.  Yet  some  say,  this  law  was  very 
properly  levelled  against  those  who,  conscious  of  their  own 
inability,  match  with  heiresses  for  the  sake  of  the  portion,  and, 
under  color  of  law,  do  violence  to  nature.  For  when  they 
know  that  such  heiresses  may  make  choice  of  others  to  grant 
their  favors  to,  they  will  either  let  those  matches  alone,  or, 
if  they  do  marry  in  that  manner,  they  must  suffer  the  shame 

*  The  epheta;  were  first  appointed  in  tlie  reign  of  Demophon,  tbe  son  of 
Theseus,  for  the  trying  of  wilful  murders,  and  cases  of  manslaughter.  They 
consisted  at  first  of  fifty  Athenians,  and  as  many  Argives;  but  Draco  excluded 
the  Argives,  and  ordered  that  it  should  be  composed  of  fifty -one  Athenians, 
who  were  all  to  be  turned  of  fifty  years  of  age.  He  also  fixed  their  authority 
above  that  of  the  areopagites ;  but  Solon  brought  them  under  that  court,  and 
limited  their  jurisdiction. 

t  Aulus  Gellius,  who  has  preserved  the  very  words  of  this  law,  adds,  that 
one  who  has  stood  neuter,  should  lose  his  houses,  his  country  and  estate,  and 
be  sent  out  an  exile. — Noct.  Jlttic.*  1.  ii.  c.  12. 

Plutarch,  in  another  place,  condemns  this  law  ;  but  Gellius  highly  commends 
it,  and  assigns  this  reason  : — The  wise  and  just,  as  well  as  the  envious  and  wick- 
ed, being  obliged  to  choose  some  side,  matters  were  easily  accommodated  ; 
whereas,  if  the  latter  only,  as  is  generally  the  case  with  other  cities,  had  the 
management  of  factions,  they  would,  for  private  reasr^s,  be  continually  kept 
up,  to  the  great  hurt,  if  not  the  utter  ruin,  of  the  State. 


352  SOLON. 

of  theii  avarice  and  dishonest}7.  It  is  right  that  the  heiress 
should  not  have  liberty  to  choose  at  large,  but  only  amongst 
her  husband's  relations,  that  the  child  which  is  born  may,  at 
least,  belong  to  his  kindred  and  family.  Agreeable  to  this  is 
the  direction  that  the  bride  and  bridegroom  should  be  shut  up 
together,  and  eat  of  the  same  quince.* 

In  all  other  marriages,  he  ordered  that  no  dowries  should 
be  given ;  the  bride  was  to  bring  with  her  only  three  suits  of 
clothes,  and  some  household  stuff  of  small  value.f  For  he  did 
not  choose  that  marriages  should  be  made  with  mercenary  or 
venal  views,  but  would  have  that  union  cemented  by  the  en- 
dearment of  children,  and  every  other  instance  of  love  and 
friendship.  Nay,  Dionysius  himself,  when  his  mother  desired 
to  be  married  to  a  young  Syracusan,  told  her, — "  He  had,  in- 
deed, by  his  tyranny  broke  through  the  laws  of  his  country, 
but  he  could  not  break  those  of  nature,  by  countenancing  so 
disproportionate  a  match."  And,  surely,  such  disorders 
should  not  be  tolerated  in  any  State,  nor  such  matches,  where 
there  is  no  equality  of  years,  or  inducements  of  love,  or  prob- 
ability that  the  end  of  marriage  will  be  answered.  So  that 
to  an  old  man  who  marries  a  young  woman,  some  prudent 
magistrate  or  lawgiver  might  express  himself  in  the  words  ad- 
dressed to  Philoctetes : — 

Poor  soul !  how  fit  art  thou  to  marry ! 

And  if  he  found  a  young  man  in  the  house  of  a  rich  old  wo- 
man, like  a  partridge,  growing  fat  in  his  private  services,  he 
would  remove  him  to  some  young  virgin  who  wanted  a  hus- 
band. But  enough  of  this. 

That  law  of  Solon's  is  also  justly  commended,  which  forbids 

*  The  eating  of  the  quince,  which  was  not  peculiar  to  an  heiress  and  her  hus- 
band (for  all  newly-married  people  ate  it),  implied  that  their  discourses  ought 
to  be  pleasant  to  each  other,  that  fruit  making  the  breath  sweet. 

t  The  bride  brought  with  her  an  earthen  pan,  called  phrogetcon,  wherein 
barley  was  parched ;  to  signify  that  she  undertook  the  business  of  the  house, 
and  would  do  her  part  towards  providing  for  the  family. 


SOLON.  353 

men  to  speak  ill  of  the  dead.  For  piety  requires  us  to  consider 
the  deceased  as  sacred ;  justice  calls  upon  us  to  spare  those 
that  are  not  in  being ;  and  good  policy,  to  prevent  the  per- 
petuating of  hatred.  He  forbade  his  people  also  to  revile  the 
living,  in  a  temple,  in  a  court  of  justice,  in  the  great  assembly 
of  the  people,  or  at  the  public  games.  He  that  offended  in 
this  respect,  was  to  pay  three  drachmas  to  the  person  injured, 
and  two  to  the  public.  Never  to  restrain  anger  is,  indeed,  a 
proof  of  weakness  or  want  of  breeding ;  and  always  to  guard 
against  it,  is  very  difficult,  and  to  some  persons  impossible. 
Now  what  is  enjoined  by  law  should  be  practicable,  if  the 
legislator  desires  to  punish  a  few  to  some  good  purpose,  and 
not  many  to  no  purpose. 

His  law  concerning  wills  has  likewise  its  merit.  For  be- 
fore his  time  the  Athenians  were  not  allowed  to  dispose  of 
their  estates  by  will :  the  houses  and  other  substance  of  the 
deceased  were  to  remain  among  his  relations.  But  he  permit- 
ted any  one,  that  had  not  children,  to  leave  his  possessions  to 
whom  he  pleased  ;  thus  preferring  the  tie  of  friendship  to  that 
of  kindred,  and  choice  to  necessity,  he  gave  every  man  the 
full  and  free  disposal  of  his  own.  Yet  he  allowed  not  all  sorts 
of  legacies,  but  those  only  that  were  not  extorted  by  frenzy, 
the  consequence  of  disease  or  poisons,  by  imprisonment  or 
violence,  or  the  persuasions  of  a  wife.  For  he  considered  in- 
ducements, that  operated  against  reason,  as  no  better  than 
force ;  to  be  deceived,  was  with  Mm  the  same  thing  as  to  be 
compelled ;  and  he  looked  upon  pleasure  to  be  as  great  a  per- 
verter  as  pain.* 

He  regulated,  moreover,  the  journeys  of  women,  their 
mournings  and  sacrifices,  and  endeavored  to  keep  them  clear 
of  all  disorder  and  excess.  They  were  not  to  go  out  of  town 

'  He  likewise  ordained,  that  adopted  persons  should  make  no  will ;  but  as 
soon  as  they  had  children  lawfully  begotten,  they  were  at  liberty  to  return  into 
the  family  whence  they  were  adopted  :  or  if  they  continued  in  it  to  their  death, 
the  estate    -everted  to  the  relations  of  the  persons  who  adopted  them.— Demos 
in  Ornt.  in  ,'^eptin. 

01 


SO* 


354  SOLON. 

with,  more  than  three  habits  ;  the  provisions  they  carried  with 
them  were  not  to  exceed  the  value  of  an  obulus ;  their  basket 
was  not  to  be  above  a  cubi,t  high  ;  and  in  the  night  they  were 
not  to  travel  but  in  a  carriage,  with  a  torch  before  them.  At 
funerals,  they  were  forbid  to  tear  themselves,*  and  no  hired 
mourner  was  to  utter  lamentable  notes,  or  to  act  anything  else 
that  tended  to  excite  sorrow.  They  were  not  permitted  to 
sacrifice  an  ox  on  those  occasions  ;  or  to  bury  more  than  three 
garments  with  the  body ;  or  to  visit  any  tombs  beside  those 
of  their  own  family,  except  at  the  time  of  interment.  Most 
of  these  things  are  likewise  forbidden  by  our  laws,  with  the 
addition  of  this  circumstance,  that  those  who  oifend  in  such  a 
manner,  are  fined  by  the  censors  of  the  women,  as  giving  way 
to  weak  passions  and  childish  sorrow. 

As  the  city  was  filled  with  persons,  who  assembled  from  all 
parts,  on  account  of  the  great  security  in  which  people  lived 
in  Attica,  Solon  observing  this,  and  that  the  country  withal 
was  poor  and  barren,  and  that  merchants  who  traffic  by  sea  do 
not  use  to  import  their  goods  where  they  can  have  nothing  in 
exchange,  turned  the  attention  of  the  citizens  to  manufactures. 
For  this  purpose  he  made  a  law,  that  no  son  should  be  obliged 
to  maintain  his  father,  if  he  had  not  taught  him  a  trade.t  As 
for  Lycurgus,  whose  city  was  clear  of  strangers,  and  whose 
country,  according  to  Euripides,  was  sufficient  for  twice  the 
number  of  inhabitants ;  where  there  was,  moreover,  a  multi- 
tude of  Helotes,  who  were  not  only  to  be  kept  constantly  ein- 

*  Demosthenes  (in  Timocr.)  recites  Solon's  directions  as  to  funerals  as  fol- 
lows:— "  Let  the  dead  bodies  be  laid  out  in  the  house  according  as  the  deceased 
gave  order,  and  the  day  following,  before  sun-rise,  carried  forth.  Whilst  the 
body  is  carrying  to  the  grave,  let  the  men  go  before,  the  women  follow.  It  shall 
not  be  lawful  for  any  woman  to  enter  upon  the  goods  of  the  dead,  and  to  follow 
the  body  to  the  grave  under  threescore  years  of  age,  except  such  as  are  within  the 
degrees  of  cousins." 

t  He  U-dt  was  thrice  convicted  of  idleness  was  to  be  declared  infamous. 
Herodotus  (1.  vii.)  and  Diodorus  Siculus  (1.  i.)  agree  that  a  law  of  this  kind  was 
in  use  ia  Egypt.  It  is  probable,  therefore,  that  Solon,  who  was  thoroughly  ac- 
quaints fvith  the  learning  of  that  nation,  borrowed  it  from  them. 


SOLON.  355 

ployed,  but  to  be  humbled  and  worn  out  by  servitude,  it  was 
right  for  him  to  set  the  citizens  free  from  laborious  and  me- 
chanic arts,  and  to  employ  them  in  arms,  as  the  only  art  fit 
for  them  to  learn  and  exercise.  But  Solon,  rather  adapting 
his  laws  to  the  state  of  his  country,  than  his  country  to  his 
laws,  and  perceiving  that  the  soil  of  Attica,  which  hardly  re- 
warded the  husbandman's  labor,  was  far  from  being  capable 
of  maintaining  a  lazy  multitude,  ordered  that  trades  should 
be  accounted  honorable;  that  the  council  of  the  areopagus 
should  examine  into  every  man's  means  of  subsisting,  and 
chastise  the  idle. 

But  that  law  was  more  rigid,  which  (as  Heraclides  of  Pon- 
tus  informs  us)  excused  bastards  from  relieving  their  fathers. 
Nevertheless,  the  man  that  disregards  so  honorable  a  state  as 
marriage,  does  not  take  a  woman  for  the  sake  of  children,  but 
merely  to  indulge  his  appetite.  He  has  therefore  his  re- 
wards ;  and  there  remains  no  pretence  for  him  to  upbraid 
those  children,  whose  very  birth  he  has  made  a  reproach  to 
them. 

In  truth,  his  laws  concerning  women,  in  general,  appear 
very  absurd ;  for  he  permitted  any  one  to  kill  an  adulterer 
taken  in  the  fact  ;*  but  if  a  man  committed  a  rape  upon  a 
free  woman,  he  was  only  to  be  fined  a  hundred  drachmas  ;  if 
he  gained  his  purpose  by  persuasion,  twenty ;  but  prostitutes 
were  excepted,  because  they  have  their  price.  And  he  would 
not  allow  them  to  sell  a  daughter  or  sister,  unless  she  were 
taken  in  an  act  of  dishonor  before  marriage.  But  to  punish 
the  same  fault  sometimes  in  a  severe  and  rigorous  manner,  and 
sometimes  lightly  and  as  it  were  in  sport,  with  a  trivial  fine,  is 
not  agreeable  to  reason,  unless  the  scarcity  of  money  in  Athens 
at  that  time  made  a  pecuniary  mulct  a  heavy  one.  And,  in- 
deed, in  the  valuation  of  things  for  the  sacrifice,  a  sheep  and  a 

*  No  adulteress  was  to  adorn  herself,  or  to  assist  at  the  public  sacrifices ;  and 
in  case  she  did,  he  gave  liberty  to  any  one  to  tear  her  clothes  off  her  back,  and 
beat  her  into  the  bargain. 


356  SOLON. 

medimnus  of  corn  were  reckoned  each  at  a  drachma  only. 
To  the  victor  in  the  Isthmian  games,  he  appointed  a  reward 
of  a  hundred  drachmas;  and  to  the  victor  in  the  Olympian, 
five  hundred.*  He  that  caught  a  he-wolf,  was  to  have  five 
drachmas  ;  he  that  took  a  she-wolf,  one  ;  and  the  former  sum. 
(as  Demetrius  Phalereus  asserts)  was  the  value  of  an  ox,  the 
latter  of  a  sheep. 

As  Attica  was  not  supplied  with  w.iter  from  perennial  riv- 
ers, lakes,  or  springs,  but  chiefly  by  wells  dug  for  that  pur- 
pose, he  made  a  law,  that  where  there  was  a  public  well,  all 
within  the  distance  of  four  furlongs  should  make  use  of  it; 
but  where  the  distance  was  greater,  they  were  to  provide  a 
well  of  their  own.  And  if  they  dug  ten  fathoms  deep  in  their 
own  ground,  and  could  find  no  water,  they  had  liberty  to 
fill  a  vessel  of  six  gallons  twice  a  day  at  their  neighbor's. 
Thus  he  thought  it  proper  to  assist  persons  in  real  necessity, 
but  not  to  encourage  idleness.  His  regulations  with  respect 
to  the  planting  of  trees  were  also  very  judicious.  He  that 
planted  any  tree  in  his  field,  was  to  place  it  at  least  five  feet 
from  his  neighbor's  ground ;  and  if  it  was  a  fig-tree  or  an 
olive,  nine ;  for  these  extend  their  roots  further  than  others, 
and  their  neighborhood  is  prejudicial  to  some  trees,  not  only 
as  they  take  away  the  nourishment,  but  their  effluvia  is  nox- 
ious. He  that  would  dig  a  pit  or  a  ditch,  was  to  dig  it  as  far 
from  another  man's  ground  as  it  was  deep ;  and  if  any  one 
would  raise  a  stock  of  bees,  he  was  to  place  them  three  hun- 
dred feet  from  those  already  raised  by  another. 

Of  all  the  products  of  the  earth,  he  allowed  none  to  be  sold 
to  strangers  but  oil  ;  and  whoever  presumed  to  export  any- 
thing else,  the  archon  was  solemnly  to  declare  him  accursed, 
or  to  pay  himself  a  hundred  drachmas  into  the  public  treas- 

*  At  the  same  time  he  contracted  the  rewards  bestowed  upon  wrestlers,  es- 
teeming such  gratuities  useless,  and  even  dangerous;  as  they  tended  to  encour- 
age idleness,  by  putting  men  upon  wasting  that  tini-  in  exercises,  which  ought 
to  be  spent  in  providing  for  their  families. 


SOLON.  357 

ury.  This  law  is  in  the  first  table.  And  therefore  it  is  not  ab- 
solutely improbable,  what  some  affirm,  that  the  exportation 
of  figs  \vas  formerly  forbidden,  and  that  the  informer  against 
the  delinquent  was  called  a  sycophant. 

He  likewise  enacted  a  law  for  reparation  of  damage  re- 
ceived from  beasts.  A  dog  that  had  bit  a  man  was  to  be  de- 
livered up  bound  to  a  log  of  four  cubits  long  ;*  an  agreeable 
contrivance  for  security  against  such  an  animal. 

But  the  wisdom  of  the  law  concerning  the  naturalizing  of 
foreigners  is  a  little  dubious  ;  because  it  forbids  the  freedom  of 
the  city  to  be  granted  to  any  but  such  as  are  forever  exiled 
from  their  own  country,  or  transplant  themselves  to  Athens 
with  their  whole  family,  for  the  sake  of  exercising  some  man- 
ual trade.  This,  we  are  told,  he  did,  not  with  a  view  to  keep 
strangers  at  a  distance,  but  rather  to  invite  them  to  Athens, 
upon  the  sure  hope  of  being  admitted  to  the  privilege  of  citi- 
zens ;  and  he  imagined  the  settlement  of  those  might  be  en- 
tirely depended  upon,  who  had  been  driven  from  their  na- 
tive country,  or  had  quitted  it  by  choice. 

That  law  is  peculiar  to  Solon  which  regulates  the  going  to 
entertainments  made  at  the  public  charge,  by  him  called  par- 
asitein.\  For  he  does  not  allow  the  same  person  to  repair  to 
them  often  ;  and  he  lays  a  penalty  upon  such  as  refuse  to  go 
when  invited  ;  looking  upon  the  former  as  a  mark  of  epicur- 
ism, and  the  latter  of  contempt  of  the  public. 

*  This  law  and  several  others  of  Solon,  were  taken  into  the  twelve  tables. 
In  the  consulate  of  T.  Romilius  and  C.  Veturius,  in  the  year  of  Rome,  293, 
the  Romans  sent  deputies  to  Athens,  to  transcribe  his  laws,  and  those  of 
the  other  lawgivers  of  Greece,  in  order  to  form  thereby  a  body  of  laws  for 
Rome. 

f  In  the  first  ages  the  name  of  parasite  was  venerable  and  sacred,  for  it  prop- 
erly signified  one  that  was  a  messmate  at  the  table  of  sacrifices.  There  were 
in  Greece  several  persons  particularly  honored  with  this  title,  much  like  those 
whom  the  Romans  called  epulones,  a  religious  order  instituted  by  Numa.  So- 
lon ordained  that  every  tribe  should  offer  a  sacrifice  once  a  month,  and  at  the 
end  of  the  sacrifice  make  a  public  entertainment,  at  which  all  who  were  of 
that  tribe  should  be  obliged  to  assist  by  turns. 


358  SOLON. 

All  his  laws  were  to  continue  in  force  for  a  hundred  yeari, 
and  were  written  upon  wooden  tables,  which  might  be  turned 
round  in  the  oblong  cases  that  contained  them.  Some  small 
remains  of  them  are  preserved  in  the  Prytanium  to  this  day. 
They  were  called  cyrbes,  as  Aristotle  tells  us ;  and  Cratinus, 
the  comic  poet,  thus  spoke  of  them : — 

By  the  great  names  of  Solon  and  of  Draco, 
Whose  cyrbes  now  but  serve  to  boil  our  pulse. 

Some  say,  those  tables  were  properly  called  cyrbes,  on  which 
were  written  the  rules  for  religious  rites  and  sacrifices,  and  the 
other  axones.  The  senate,  in  a  body,  bound  themselves  by 
oath  to  establish  the  laws  of  Solon ;  and  the  thesmotJietce^  or 
guardians  of  the  laws,  severally  took  an  oath  in  a  particular 
form,  by  the  stone  in  the  market-place,  that  for  every  law  they 
broke,  each  would  dedicate  a  golden  statue  at  Delphi  of  the 
same  weight  with  himself.* 

Observing  the  irregularity  of  the  month,f  and  that  the 
moon  neither  rose  nor  set  at  the  same  time  with  the  sun,  as 

*  Gold,  in  Solon's  time,  was  so  scarce  in  Greece,  that  when  the  Spartans  were 
ordered  by  the  oracle  to  gild  the  face  of  Apollo's  statue,  they  inquired  in  vain 
for  gold  all  over  Greece,  and  were  directed  by  the  pythoness  to  buy  some  ot 
Croesus,  king  of  Lydia. 

t  Solon  discovered  the  falseness  of  Thales'  maxim,  that  the  moon  performed 
her  revolution  in  thirty  days,  and  found  that  the  true  time  was  twenty-nine  days 
and  a  half.  He  directed,  therefore,  that  each  of  the  twelve  months  should  be 
accounted  twenty-nine  or  thirty  days  alternately.  By  this  means  a  lunar  year 
was  formed  of  354  days ;  and  to  reconcile  it  to  the  solar  year,  he  ordered  a  mouth 
of  twenty-two  days  to  be  intercalated  every  two  years,  and  at  the  end  of  the 
second  two  years,  he  directed  that  a  month  of  twenty-three  days  should  be  in- 
tercalated. He  likewise  engaged  the  Athenians  to  divide  their  months  into 
three  parts,  styled  the  beginning,  middle,  and  ending  ;  each  of  these  consisted 
of  ten  days,  when  the  month  was  thirty  days  long,  and  the  last  of  nine,  when 
it  was  nine-and-twenty  days  long.  In  speaking  of  the  two  first  parts,  they  reck- 
oned according  to  the  usual  order  of  numbers,  viz.  the  first,  &c.  day  of  the 
moon,  beginning;  the  first,  second,  &c.  of  the  moon,  middle;  but  with  re- 
spect to  the  last  part  of  the  month,  they  reckoned  backwards,  that  is,  instead 
of  eaying,  the  first,  second,  &c.  day  of  the  moon,  ending,  they  said,  the  tenth, 
ninth,  &c.  of  the  moon,  ending.  This  is  a  circumstance  which  should  be  care- 
fully attended  to. 


SOLON.  359 

it  often  happened  that  in  the  same  day  she  overtook  and 
passed  by  him,  he  ordered  that  the  day  be  called  hene  ~kai  nea 
(the  old  and  the  new);  assigning  the  part  of  it  before  the  con- 
junction to  the  old  month,  and  the  rest  to  the  beginning  of 
the  new.  •  He  seems,  therefore,  to  have  been  the  first  who 
understood  that  verse  in  Homer,  which  makes  mention  of  a 
day  wherein  "  the  old  month  ended  and  the  new  began."* 

The  day  following  he  called  the  new  moon.  After  the 
twentieth  he  counted  not  by  adding,  but  subtracting,  to  the 
thirtieth,  according  to  the  decreasing  phases  of  the  moon. 

"When  his  laws  took  place,t  Solon  had  his  visitors  every 
day  finding  fault  with  some  of  them,  and  commending  oth- 
ers, or  advising  him  to  make  certain  additions  or  retrench- 
ments. But  the  greater  part  came  to  desire  a  reason  for  this 
or  that  article,  or  a  clear  and  precise  explication  of  the  mean- 
ing and  design.  Sensible  that  he  could  not  well  excuse  him- 
self from  complying  with  their  desires,  and  that  if  he  in- 
dulged their  importunity,  the  doing  it  might  give  offence,  he 

*  Odyss.  xiv.  162. 

t  Plutarch  has  only  mentioned  such  of  Solon's  laws  as  he  thought  the  most 
singular  and  remarkable :  Diogenes  Laertius  and  Demosthenes  have  given  us 
an  account  of  some  others  that  ought  not  to  be  forgotten  :— "  Let  not  the  guard- 
ian live  in  the  same  house  with  the  mother  of  his  wards.  Let  not  the  tuition 
of  minors  be  committed  to  him  who  is  next  after  them  in  the  inheritance.  Let 
not  an  engraver  keep  the  impression  of  a  seal  which  he  has  engraved.  Let  him 
that  puts  out  the  eye  of  a  man  who  has  but  one,  lose  both  his  own.  If  an  archon 
is  taken  in  liquor,  let  him  be  put  to  death.  Let  him  who  refuses  to  maintain 
his  father  and  mother,  be  infamous ;  and  so  let  him  that  has  consumed  his  pat- 
rimony. Let  him  who  refuses  to  go  to  war,  flees,  or  behaves  cowardly,  be  de- 
barred the  precincts  of  the/orwm,  and  places  of  public  worship.  If  a  man  sur- 
prises his  wife  in  adultery,  and  lives  with  her  afterwards,  let  him  be  deemed 
infamous.  Let  him  who  frequents  the  houses  of  lewd  women,  be  debarred 
from  speaking  in  the  assemblies  of  the  people.  Let  a  pander  be  pursued,  and 
put  to  death  if  taken.  If  any  man  steal  in  the  day-time,  let  him  be  carried  to 
the  eleven  officers ;  if  in  the  night,  it  shall  be  lawful  to  kill  him  in  the  act,  or 
to  wound  him  in  the  pursuit,  and  carry  him  to  the  aforesaid  officers;  if  he 
steals  common  things,  let  him  pay  double,  and  if  the  convictor  thinks  fit,  be  ex- 
posed in  chains  five  days;  if  hi  be  guilty  of  sacrilege,  let  him  be  put  to 
death." 


360  SOLON. 

determined  to  withdraw  from  the  difficulty,  and  to  get  rid  at 
once  of  their  cavils  and  exceptions ;  for,  as  he  himself  ob- 
serves, 

Not  all  the  greatest  enterprise  can  please. 

Under  pretence  therefore  of  traffic,  he  set  sail  for  another 
country,  having  obtained  leave  of  the  Athenians  for  ten  years' 
absence.  In  that  time  he  hoped  his  laws  would  become  fa- 
miliar to  them. 

His  first  voyage  was  to  Egypt,  where  he  abode  some  time, 
as  he  himself  relates, 

On  the  Canopian  shore,  by  Nile's  deep  mouth. 

There  he  conversed  upon  points  of  philosophy,  with  Pseno- 
phis  the  Heliopolitan,  and  Senchis  the  SaYte,  the  most  learned 
of  the  Egyptian  priests ;  and  having  an  account  from  them  of 
the  Atlantis  Island,*  (as  Plato  informs  us,)  he  attempted  to  de- 
scribe it  to  the  Grecians  in  a  poem.  From  Egypt  he  sailed 
to  Cyprus,  and  there  was  honored  with  the  best  regards  of 
Philocyprus,  one  of  the  kings  of  that  island,  who  reigned 
over  a  small  city  built  by  Demophon,  the  son  of  Theseus,  near 
the  river  Clarius,  in  a  strong  situation  indeed,  but  very  indif- 
ferent soil.  As  there  was  an  agreeable  plain  below,  Solon 
persuaded  him  to  build  a  larger  and  pleasanter  city  there,  and 

*  Plato  finished  this  history  from  Solon's  memoirs,  as  may  be  seen  in  his  Ti- 
maeus  and  Critia-s.  He  pretends,  that  this  Atlantis,  an  island  situated  in  the 
Atlantic  ocean,  was  bigger  than  Asia  and  Africa ;  and  that  notwithstanding  its 
vast  extent,  it  was  drowned  in  one  day  and  night.  Diodorus  Siculus  says,  the 
Carthaginians,  who  discovered  it,  made  it  death  for  any  one  to  settle  in  it. 
Amidst  a  number  of  conjectures  concerning  it,  one  of  the  most  probable  is, 
that  in  those  days  the  Africans  had  some  knowledge  of  America.  Another 
opinion  worth  mentioning  is,  that  the  Jltlantidcs,  or  Fortunate  islands,  were 
what  we  now  call  the  Canaries.  Homer  thus  describes  them : — 

Stern  winter  smiles  on  that  auspicious  clime: 

The  fields  are  florid  with  unfading  prime. 

From  the  bleak  pole  no  winds  inclement  blow, 

Mould  the  round  hail,  or  flake  the  fleecy  snow ; 

But  from  the  breezy  deep  the  blest  inhale 

The  fragrant  murmurs  of  the  western  gale. 


SOLON.  361 

to  remove  the  inhabitants  of  the  other  to  it.  He  also  assisted 
in  laying  out  the  whole,  and  building  it  in  the  best  manner 
for  convenience  and  defence ;  so  that  Philocyprus  in  a  short 
time  had  it  so  well  peopled,  as  to  excite  the  envy  of  the  other 
princes.  And  therefore,  though  the  former  city  was  called 
Aipeia,  yet,  in  honor  of  Solon,  he  called  the  new  one  Soli. 
He  himself  speaks  of  the  building  of  this  city,  in  his  Elegies, 
addressing  himself  to  Philocyprus : — 

For  you  be  long  the  Solian  throne  decreed ! 
For  you  a  race  of  prosperous  sons  succeed 
If  in  those  scenes  to  her  so  justly  dear, 
My  hand  a  blooming  city  help'd  to  rear, 
May  the  sweet  voice  of  smiling  Venus  bless, 
And  speed  me  home  with  honors  and  success ! 

As  for  his  interview  with  Croesus,  some  pretend  to  prove 
from  chronology  that  it  is  fictitious.  But  since  the  story  is  so 
famous,  and  so  well  attested,  nay  (what  is  more)  so  agreeable 
to  Solon's  character,  so  worthy  of  his  wisdom  and  magna- 
nimity, I  cannot  prevail  with  myself  to  reject  it  for  the  sake 
of  certain  chronological  tables,  which  thousands  are  correct- 
ing to  this  day,  without  being  able  to  bring  them  to  any  cer- 
tainty. Solon,  then,  is  said  to  have  gone  to  Sardis,  at  the  re- 
quest of  Croesus ;  and  when  he  came  there,  he  was  affected  much 
in  the  same  manner  as  a  person  born  in  an  inland  country, 
Avhen  he  first  goes  to  see  the  ocean  ;  for  as  he  takes  every  great 
river  he  comes  to  for  the  sea,  so  Solon,  as  he  passed  through 
the  court,  and  saw  many  of  the  nobility  richly  dressed,  and 
walking  in  great  pomp  amidst  a  crowd  of  attendants  and 
guards,  took  each  of  them  for  Croesus.  At  last,  when  he  was 
conducted  into  the  presence,  he  found  the  king  set  off  with 
whatever  can  be  imagined  curious  and  valuable,  either  in 
beauty  of  colors,  elegance  of  golden  ornaments,  or  splendor  of 
jewels ;  in  order  that  the  grandeur  and  variety  of  the  scene 
might  be  as  striking  as  possible.  Solon,  standing  over  against 
the  throne,  was  not  at  all  surprised,  nor  did  he  pay  those  com- 
pliments that  were  expected ;  on  the  contrary,  it  was  plain  to 

31 


3(52  SOLON. 

all  persons  f  discernment,  that  he  despised  such  vain  ostenta- 
tion and  littleness  of  pride.  Croesus  then  ordered  his  treasures 
to  be  opened,  and  his  magnificent  apartments  and  furniture  to 
be  shown  him ;  but  this  was  quite  a  needless  trouble ;  for 
Solon,  in  one  view  of  the  king,  was  able  to  read  his  character. 
"When  he  had  seen  all,  and  was  conducted  back,  Croesus  asked 
him,  "  If  he  had  ever  beheld  a  happier  man  than  he  ?"  Solon 
answered, — u  He  had  ;  and  that  the  person  was  one  Tellus,  a 
plain  but  worthy  citizen  of  Athens,  who  left  valuable  children 
behind  him  ;  and  who  having  been  above  the  want  of  neces- 
saries all  his  life,  died  gloriously  fighting  for  his  country." 
By  this  time  he  appeared  to  Croesus  to  be  a  strange,  uncouth 
kind  of  rustic,  who  did  not  measure  happiness  by  the  quan- 
tity of  gold  and  silver,  but  could  prefer  the  life  and  death  of 
a  private  and  mean  person  to  his  high  dignity  and  power. 
However,  he  asked  him  again, — "  Whether  after  Tellus,  he 
knew  another  happier  man  in  the  world  ?"  Solon  answered, 
— u  Yes,  Cleobis  and  Biton,  famed  for  their  brotherly  affection, 
and  dutiful  behavior  to  their  mother ;  for  the  oxen  not  being 
ready,  they  put  themselves  in  the  harness,  and  drew  their 
mother  to  Juno's  temple,  who  was  extremely  happy  in  having 
such  sons,  and  moved  forward  amidst  the  blessings  of  the 
people.  After  the  sacrifice,  they  drank  a  cheerful  cup  with 
their  friends,  and  then  laid  down  to  rest,  but  rose  no  more; 
for  they  died  in  the  night  without  sorrow  or  pain,  in  the 
midst  of  so  much  glory."  "  Well!"  said  Crcesus,  now  highly 
displeased,  "  and  do  you  not  then  rank  us  in  the  number  of 
happy  men  !"  Solon,  unwilling  either  to  flatter  him,  or  to  ex- 
asperate him  more,  replied, — "  King  of  Lydia,  as  God  has 
given  the  Greeks  a  moderate  proportion  of  other  things,  so 
likewise  he  has  favored  them  with  a  democratic  spirit,  and  a 
liberal  kind  of  wisdom,  which  has  no  taste  for  the  splendors 
of  royalty.  Moreover,  the  vicissitudes  of  life  suffer  us  not  to 
be  elated  by  any  present  good  fortune,  or  to  admire  that  fe- 
licity which  is  liable  to  change.  Futurity  carries  for  every  man 


SOLON.  363 

many  various  and  uncertain  events  in  its  bosom.  He,  there- 
fore, whom  heaven  blesses  with  success  to  the  last,  is  in  our 
estimation  the  happy  man.  But  the  happiness  of  him  who 
still  lives,  and  has  the  dangers  of  life  to  encounter,  appears  to 
us  no  better  than  that  of  a  champion  before  the  combat  is  de- 
termined, and  while  the  crown  is  uncertain."  With  these 
words  Solon  departed,  leaving  Croesus  chagrined,  but  not  in- 
structed. 

At  that  time  ^Esop  the  fabulist  was  at  the  court  of  Croesus, 
who  had  sent  for  him,  and  caressed  him  not  a  little.  He  was 
concerned  at  the  unkind  reception  Solon  met  with,  and  there- 
upon gave  him  this  advice, — "A  man  should  either  not  con- 
verse with  kings  at  all,  or  say  what  is  agreeable  to  them."  To 
which  Solon  replied, — "  Nay,  but  he  should  either  not  do  it 
at  all,  or  say  what  is  useful  to  them." 

Though  Croesus  at  that  time  held  our  lawgiver  in  contempt, 
yet  when  he  was  defeated  in  his  wars  with  Cyrus,  when  his 
city  was  taken,  himself  made  prisoner,  and  laid  bound  upon 
the  pile,  in  order  to  be  burnt,  in  the  presence  of  Cyrus,  and 
all  the  Persians,  he  cried  out  as  loud  as  he  possibly  could, — 
"Solon!  Solon!  Solon!"  Cyrus,  surprised  at  this,  sent  to  in- 
quire of  him, — "  What  God  or  man  it  was,  whom  alone  he 
thus  invoked  under  so  great  a  calamity  ?"  Croesus  answered, 
without  the  least  disguise, — "  He  is  one  of  the  wise  men  of 
Greece,  whom  I  sent  for,  not  with  a  design  to  hear  his  wisdom, 
or  to  learn  what  might  be  of  service  to  me,  but  that  he  might 
see  and  extend  the  reputation  of  that  glory,  the  loss  of  which 
I  find  a  much  greater  misfortune  than  the  possession  of  it  was 
a  blessing.  My  exalted  state  was  only  an  exterior  advantage, 
the  happiness  of  opinion  ;  but  the  reverse  plunges  me  into 
real  sufferings,  and  ends  in  misery  irremediable.  This  was 
foreseen  by  that  great  man,  who,  forming  a  conjecture  of  the 
future  from  what  he  then  saw,  advised  me  to  consider  the  end 
of  life,  and  not  to  rely  or  grow  insolent  upon  uncertainties." 
When  this  was  told  Cyrus,  wh  was  a  much  wiser  man  than 


364  SOLON. 

Croesus,  finding  Solon's  maxim  confirmed  by  an  example  be- 
fore him,  lie  not  only  set  Croesus  at  liberty,  but  honored  him 
with  his  protection  as  long  as  he  lived.  Thus  Solon  had  the 
glory  of  saving  the  life  of  one  of  these  kings,  and  of  instruct- 
ing the  other. 

During  his  absence,  the  Athenians  were  much  divided 
among  themselves ;  Lycurgus  being  at  the  head  of  the  low 
country,  Megacles,  the  son  of  Alcmaaon,  of  the  people  that 
lived  near  the  sea-coast,  and  Pisistratus  of  the  mountaineers, 
among  which  last  was  a  multitude  of  laboring  people,  whose 
enmity  was  chiefly  levelled  at  the  rich.  Hence  it  was,  that 
though  the  city  did  observe  Solon's  laws,  yet  all  expected 
some  change,  and  were  desirous  of  another  establishment; 
not  in  hopes  of  an  equality,  but  with  a  view  to  be  gainers  by 
the  alteration,  and  entirely  to  subdue  those  that  differed  from 
them. 

While  matters  stood  thus,  Solon  arrived  at  Athens,  where 
he  was  received  with  great  respect,  and  still  held  in  venera- 
tion by  all ;  but,  by  reason  of  his  great  age,  he  had  neither 
the  strength  nor  spirit  to  act  or  speak  in  public  as  he  had  done. 
He,  therefore,  applied  in  private  to  the  heads  of  the  factions, 
and  endeavored  to  appease  and  reconcile  them,  Pisistratus 
seemed  to  give  him  greater  attention  than  the  rest ;  for  Pisis- 
tratus had  an  affable  and  engaging  manner.  He  was  a  liberal 
benefactor  to  the  poor;*  and  even  to  his  enemies  he  behaved 
with  great  candor.  He  counterfeited  so  dexterously  the  good 
qualities  which  nature  had  denied  him,  that  he  gained  more 
credit  than  the  real  possessors  of  them,  and  stood  foremost  in 
the  public  esteem,  in  point  of  moderation  and  equity,  in  zeal 
for  the  present  government,  and  aversion  to  all  that  endeavor- 

*  By  the  poor  we  are  not  to  understand  such  as  asked  alms,  for  there  were 
none  such  at  Athens.  "  In  those  days,"  says  Isocrates,  "•  there  was  no  citizen 
that  died  of  want,  or  begged  in  the  streets,  to  the  dishonor  of  the  community." 
This  was  owing  to  the  laws  against  idleness  and  prodigality,  and  the  care  which 
the  areopagus  took  that  every  man  should  have  a  visible  livelihood. 


SOLON.  365 

ed  at  a  change.  "With  these  arts  he  imposed  upon  the  people ; 
but  Solon  soon  discovered  his  real  character,  and  was  the  first 
to  discern  his  insidious  designs.  Yet  he  did  not  absolutely 
break  with  him,  but  endeavored  to  soften  him,  and  advise  him 
better ;  declaring  both  to  him  and  others,  that  if  ambition 
could  but  be  banished  from  his  soul,  and  he  could  be  cured  of 
his  desire  of  absolute  power,  there  would  not  be  a  man  better 
disposed,  or  a  more  worthy  citizen  in  Athens. 

About  this  time,  Thespis  began  to  change  the  form  of  trag- 
edy, and  the  novelty  of  the  thing  attracted  many  spectators ; 
for  this  was  before  any  prize  was  proposed  for  those  that  ex- 
celled in  this  respect.  Solon,  who  was  always  willing  to  hear 
and  to  learn,  and  in  his  old  age  more  inclined  to  anything  that 
might  divert  and  entertain,  particularly  to  music  and  good 
fellowship,  went  to  see  Thespis  himself  exhibit,  as  the  custom 
of  the  ancient  poets  was.  When  the  play  was  done,  he  called 
to  Thespis,  and  asked  him, — "  If  he  was  not  ashamed  to  tell  so 
many  lies  before  so  great  an  assembly?"  Thespis  answered, — 
u  It  was  no  great  matter,  if  he  spoke  or  acted  so  in  jest."  To 
which  Solon  replied,  striking  the  ground  violently  with  his 
staff, — "If  we  encourage  such  jesting  as  this,  we  shall  quickly 
find  it  in  our  contracts  and  agreements." 

Soon  after  this,  Pisistratus,  having  wounded  himself  for  the 
purpose,  drove  in  that  condition  into  the  market-place,  and 
endeavored  to  inflame  the  minds  of  the  people,  by  telling 
them  his  enemies  had  laid  in  wait  for  him,  and  treated  him  in 
that  manner  on  account  of  his  patriotism.  Upon  this  the  mul- 
titude loudly  expressed  their  indignation ;  but  Solon  came  up, 
and  thus  accosted  him  : — "  Son  of  Hippocrates,  you  act  Ho- 
mer's Ulysses  but  very  indifferently  ;  for  he  wounded  himself 
to  deceive  his  enemies,  but  you  have  done  it  to  impose  upon 
your  countrymen."  Notwithstanding  this,  the  rabble  were 
ready  to  take  up  arms  for  him  ;  and  a  general  assembly  of  the 
people  being  summoned,  Ariston  made  a  motion  that  a  body- 
guard of  fifty  clubmen  should  be  assigned  him.  Solon  stood 

31* 


366  SOLON. 

up  and  opposed  it  with  many  arguments,  of  the  same  kind 
with  those  he  has  left  us  in  his  poems  : — 

You  hang  with  rapture  ou  his  honey'd  tongue. 

And  again, — 

Your  art,  to  public  interest  ever  blind, 
Your  fox-like  art  still  centres  in  yourself. 

But  when  he  saw  the  poor  hehave  in  a  riotous  manner,  and 
determined  to  gratify  Pisistratus  at  any  rate,  while  the  rich, 
out  of  fear,  declined  the  opposition,  he  retired  with  this  dec- 
laration, that  he  had  shown  more  wisdom  than  the  former, 
in  discerning  what  method  should  have  been  taken  ;  and  more 
courage  than  the  latter,  who  did  not  want  understanding,  but 
spirit  to  oppose  the  establishment  of  a  tyrant.  The  people 
having  made  the  decree,  did  not  curiously  inquire  into  the 
number  of  guards  which  Pisistratus  employed,  but  visibly  con- 
nived at  his  keeping  as  many  as  he  pleased,  till  he  seized  the 
citadel.  When  this  was  done,  and  the  city  in  great  confusion, 
Megacles,  with  the  rest  of  the  Alcmfeonidaa,  immediately  took 
to  flight.  But  Solon,  though  he  was  now  very  old,  and  had 
none  to  second  him,  appeared  in  public,  and  addressed  him- 
self to  the  citizens,  sometimes  upbraiding  them  with  their  past 
indiscretion  and  cowardice,  sometimes  exhorting  and  encour- 
aging them  to  stand  up  for  their  liberty.  Then  it  was  that 
he  spoke  those  memorable  words, — "It  would  have  been  easier 
for  them  to  repress  the  advances  of  tyranny,  and  prevent  its 
establishment ;  but  now  it  was  established,  and  grown  to  some 
height,  it  would  be  more  glorious  to  demolish  it."  However, 
finding  that  their  fears  prevented  their  attention  to  what  he 
said,  he  returned  to  his-  own  house,  and  placed  his  weapons  at 
the  street  door,  with  these  words,  — "  I  have  done  all  in  my 
power  to  defend  my  country  and  its  laws."  This  was  his  last 
public  effort.  Though  some  exhorted  him  to  fly,  he  took  no 
notice  of  their  advice,  but  was  composed  enough  to  make 
verses,  in  which  he  thus  reproaches  the  Athenians : — 


SOLON.  367 

If  fear  or  folly  has  your  rights  betray'd, 

Let  not  the  fault  on  righteous  heav'n  be  laid, 

You  gave  them  guards,  you  rais'd  your  tyrants  high, 

T'  impose  the  heavy  yoke  that  draws  the  heaving  sigh. 

Many  of  his  friends  alarmed  at  this,  told  him  the  tyrant 
would  certainly  put  him  to  death  for  it,  and  asked  him  what 
lie  trusted  to,  that  he  went  such  imprudent  lengths  ?  He  an- 
swered,— u  To  old  age."  However,  when  Pisistratus  had 
fully  established  himself,  he  made  his  court  to  Solon,  and 
treated  Ldni  with  so  much  kindness  and  respect,  that  Solon 
became  as  it  were  his  counsellor,  and  gave  sanction  to  many 
of  his  proceedings.  He  observed  the  greatest  part  of  Solon's 
laws,  showing  himself  the  example,  and  obliging  his  friends 
to  follow  it.  Thus,  when  he  was  accused  of  murder  before 
the  court  of  areopagus,  he  appeared  in  a  modest  manner  to 
make  his  defence  ;  but  hfs  accuser  dropped  the  impeachment. 
He  likewise  added  other  laws,  one  of  which  was,  that  "  per- 
sons maimed  in  the  wars  should  be  maintained  at  the  public 
charge."  Yet  this,  Heraclides  tells  us,  was  in  pursuance  of 
Solon's  plan,  who  had  decreed  the  same  in  the  case  of  Ther- 
sippus.  But,  according  to  Theophrastus,  Pisistratus,  not  So- 
lon, made  the  law  against  idleness  which  produced  at  once 
greater  industry  in  the  country,  and  tranquillity  in  the  city. 

Solon,  moreover,  attempted  in  verse  a  large  description,  or 
rather  fabulous  account  of  the  Atlantis  island,*  which  he  had 
learned  of  the  wise  men  of  SaYs,  and  which  particularly  con- 
cerned the  Athenians;  but  by  reason  of  his  age,  not  want  of 
leisure  (as  Plato  would  have  it),  he  was  apprehensive  the  work 
would  be  too  much  for  him,  and  therefore  did  not  go  through 
with  it.  These  verses  are  a  proof  that  business  was  not  the 

Innderance : — 

I  grow  in  learning  as  I  grow  in  years. 

*  This  fable  imported,  that  the  people  of  Atlantis,  having  subdued  all  Lybia 
and  a  great  part  of  Europe,  threatened  Egypt  and  Greece;  but  the  Athenians 
making  head  against  their  victorious  army,  overthrew  them  in  several  engage- 
ments, and  confined  them  to  their  own  island. 


368  SPEUSIPPUS. 

And  again : — 

Wine,  wit,  and  beauty  still  their  charms  bestow, 
Light  all  the  shades  of  life,  and  cheer  us  as  we  go. 

Plato,  ambitious  to  cultivate  and  adorn  the  subject  of  the  At- 
lantis island,  as  a  delightful  spot  in  some  fair  field  unoccupied, 
to  which  also  he  had  some  claim,  by  his  being  related  to 
Solon,  laid  out  magnificent  courts  and  enclosures,  and  erect- 
ed a  grand  entrance  to  it,  such  as  no  other  story,  fable 
or  poem,  ever  had.  But  as  he  began  it  late,  he  ended  his  life 
before  the  work.  Phanias  tells  us  Solon  died  in  the  archon- 
ship  of  Hegestratus.  The  story  of  his  ashes  being  scattered 
about  the  isle  of  Salamis  appears  absurd  and  fabulous;  and 
yet  it  is  related  by  several  authors  of  credit,  and  by  Aristotle 
in  particular. 

Diogenes  Laertius  says  that  his  bones  were  burned  in  Sala- 
mis, and  his  ashes  scattered  over  the  ground  by  his  own 
order.  And  he  has  written  the  following  epigram  upon  him  : — 

The  Cyprian  flame  devoured  great  Solon's  corse, 

Far  in  a  foreign  laud ;  but  Salamis 
Retains  his  bones,  whose  dust  is  turned  to  corn. 

The  tablets  of  his  laws  do  bear  aloft 
His  mind  to  heaven.    Such  a  burden  light 

Are  these  immortal  rules  to  th'  happy  wood. 


SPEUSIPPUS. 

SPEUSIPPTJS  was  the  successor  of  Plato  in  the  Academy,  to 
whose  doctrines  he  always  adhered,  though  he  was  not  of  the 
same  disposition  as  he.  For  he  was  a  passionate  man,  and  a 
slave  to  pleasure.  Accordingly,  they  say  that  he  once  in  a 
rage  threw  a  puppy  into  a  well ;  and  that  for  the  sake  of 
amusement,  he  went  all  the  way  to  Macedonia  to  the  marriage 
of  Gassander. 

The  female  pupils  of  Plato,  Lasuienea  of  Mantinea,  and  Axio- 


SPEUSIPPUS.  369 

thea  of  Philus,  are  said  to  have  become  disciples  of  Speusippus 
also.  And  Dionysius,  writing  to  him  in  a  petulant  manner, 
says,  "  And  one  may  learn  philosophy  too  from  your  female 
disciple  from  Arcadia ;  moreover,  Plato  used  to  take  his  pupils 
without  exacting  any  fee  from  them ;  but  you  collect  tribute 
from  yours,  whether  willing  or  unwilling." 

He  was  the  first  man,  as  Diodorus  relates  in  the  first  book 
of  his  Commentaries,  who  investigated  in  his  school  what  was 
common  to  the  several  sciences ;  and  who  endeavored,  as  far 
as  possible,  to  maintain  their  connection  with  each  other.  He 
was  also  the  first  who  published  those  things  which  Isocrates 
called  secrets,  as  Cseneus  tells  us.  And  the  first,  too,  who 
found  out  how  to  make  light  baskets  of  bundles  of  twigs. 

But  he  became  afflicted  with  paralysis,  and  sent  to  Xenoc- 
rates,  inviting  him  to  become  his  successor  in  the  school.  Once 
when  he  was  being  borne  in  a  carriage  into  the  Academy,  he 
met  Diogenes,  and  said  "  Hail ;"  and  Diogenes  replied,  "  I  will 
not  say  hail  to  you  who,  though  in  such  a  state  as  you  are,  en- 
dure to  live."  Others  relate  the  story  thus  :  "When  Diogenes 
refused  to  return  his  salutation,  he  at  the  same  time  said, 
"  Such  a  feeble  wretch  ought  to  be  ashamed  to  live  ;"  to  which 
Speusippuo  replied  that  he  "  lived  not  in  his  limbs  but  in  his 
mind." 

Speusippus  said  to  a  rich  man  who  was  in  love  with  an  ugly 
woman,  "  What  do  you  want  with  her  ?  I  will  find  you  a  much 
prettier  woman  for  ten  talents."  In  a  fit  of  despondency  he 
committed  suicide.  Diogenes  Laertius  wrote  the  following 
epigram  upon  him  :  — 

Had  I  not  known  Speusippus  thus  had  died, 
No  one  would  have  persuaded  me  that  he 

Was  e'er  akin  to  Plato ;  who  would  never 
Have  died  desponding  for  so  slight  a  grief. 


370  S  T  I  L  P  0 . 


STILPO. 

STILPO,  a  native  of  Megara,  in  Greece,  was  a  pupil  of  some 
of  Eu-clides'  school.  But  some  say  that  he  was  a  pupil  of 
Euclides  himself. 

And  he  was  so  much  superior  to  all  his  fellows  in  command 
of  words  and  in  acuteness,  that  it  may  almost  be  said  that  all 
Greece  fixed  its  eyes  upon  him,  and  joined  the  Megaric  school. 
Concerning  him  Philippus  of  Megara  speaks  thus,  word  for 
word  : — "  For  he  carried  off  from  Theophrastus,  Metrodorus 
the  speculative  philosopher,  and  Timagoras  of  Gela ;  and 
Aristotle  the  Oyrenaic,  he  robbed  of  Olitarchus  and  Simias ; 
and  from  the  dialecticians'  school  also  he  won  men  over, 
carrying  off  Pceoneius  from  Aristides,  and  Dippilus  of  the 
Bosphorus  from  Euphantus,  and  also  Hyrmex  of  the  Yenites, 
who  had  both  come  to  him  to  argue  against  him,  but  they 
became  converts  and  his  disciples."  Besides  these  men,  he 
attracted  to  his  school  Phrasidemus  the  Peripatetic,  a  natural 
philosopher  of  great  ability,  Alcimus  the  rhetorician,  the  most 
eminent  orator  in  all  Greece  at  that  time  ;  and  Orates,  with 
a  great  number  of  others,  among  whom  was  Zeno  the  Phoeni- 
cian. 

He  was  very  fond  of  the  study  of  politics.  Though  he  was 
married,  he  lived  also  with  a  courtesan,  named  Nicarete.  And 
he  had  a  licentious  daughter,  who  was  married  to  a  friend  of 
his  named  Simias,  a  citizen  of  Syracuse.  And  as  she  would 
not  live  in  an  orderly  manner,  some  one  told  Stilpo  that  she 
was  a  disgrace  to  him.  But  he  said,  "She  is  not  more  a  dis- 
grace to  me  than  I  am  an  honor  to  her." 

Ptolemy  Soter,  it  is  said,  received  him  with  great  honor ; 
and  when  he  had  made  himself  master  of  Megara,  he  gave 
him  money,  and  invited  him  to  sail  with  him  to  Egypt.  But 
he  accepted  only  a  moderate  sum  of  money,  and  declined  the 
journey  proposed  to  him,  but  went  over  to  ^Egina,  until 


STILPO.  371 

Ptolemy  had  sailed.  Also  when  Demetrius,  the  son  of  Antig- 
onus,  had  taken  Megara,  he  ordered  Stilpo's  house  to  he  saved, 
and  took  care  that  everything  that  had  been  plundered  from 
him  should  be  restored  to  him.  But  when  he  wished  Stilpo 
to  give  him  in  a  list  of  all  that  he  had  lost,  he  said  that  he 
had  lost  nothing  of  his  own  ;  for  that  no  one.  had  taken  from 
him  his  learning,  and  that  he  still  had  his  eloquence  and  his 
knowledge.  And  he  conversed  with  Demetrius  on  the  subject 
of  doing  good  to  men  with  such  power,  that  he  became  a 
zealous  hearer  of  his. 

They  say  that  he  once  put  such  a  question  as  this  to  a  man, 
about  the  Minerva  of  Phidias  : — "  Is  Minerva  the  Goddess  the 
daughter  of  Jupiter?"  And  when  the  other  said,  "Yes;" 
u  But  this,"  said  he,  "  is  not  the  child  of  Jupiter,  but  of 
Phidias."  And  when  he  was  brought  before  the  Areopagus 
for  this  speech,  he  did  not  deny  it,  but  maintained  that  he  had 
spoken  correctly  ;  for  that  she  was  not  a  God  (theos)  but  a 
Goddess  (thea) ;  for  that  Gods  were  of  the  male  sex  only.* 
However,  the  judges  of  the  Areopagus  ordered  him  to  leave 
the  city  ;  and  on  this  occasion,  Theodorus,  who  was  nicknamed 
Theos,  said  in  derision,  u  Whence  did  Stilpo  learn  this  ?  and 
how  could  he  tell  whether  she  was  a  God  or  a  Goddess  ?" 
But  Theodorus  was  in  truth  a  most  impudent  fellow.  But 
Stilpo  was  a  most  witty  and  elegant-minded  man.  Accord- 
ingly, when  Crates  asked  him  if  the  Gods  delighted  in  adoration 
and  prayer ;  they  say  that  he  answered,  "  Do  not  ask  these 
questions,  you  foolish  man,  in  the  road,  but  in  private."  And 
they  say,  too,  that  Bion,  when  he  was  asked  whether  there 
were  any  Gods,  answered  in  the  same  spirit : — 

"  Will  you  not  first,  O !  miserable  old  man, 
Remove  the  multitude  ?" 

But  Stilpo  was  a  man  of  simple  character,  and  free  from  all 
trick  and  humbug,  and  universally  affable.  Accordingly, 

*  The  quibble  here  is,  that  0£<3?  is  properly  only  masculine,  though  it  is  some- 
times used  as  feminine. 


372  s  T  i  L  P  o . 

when  Crates  the  Cynic  once  refused  to  answer  a  question 
that  he  had  put  to  him,  and  only  insulted  his  questioner — 
"  I  knew,"  said  Stilpo,  "  that  he  would  say  anything  rather 
than  what  he  ought."  And  once  he  put  a  question  to  him,  and 
offered  him  a  fig  at  the  same  time  ;  so  he  took  the  fig  and  ate 
it,  on  whicli  Crates  said,  "  O  Hercules,  I  have  lost  my  fig." 
"  Not  only  that,"  he  replied,  "  but  you  have  lost  your  question 
too,  of  which  the  fig  was  the  pledge."  At  another  time,  he 
saw  Crates  shivering  in  the  winter,  and  said  to  him,  "  Crates, 
you  seem  to  me  to  want  a  new  dress,"  meaning,  both  a  new 
mind  and  a  new  garment ;  and  Crates,  feeling  ashamed, 
answered  him  in  the  following  parody  : — 

"  There*  Stilpo  too,  through  the  Megarian  bounds, 
Pours  out  deep  groans,  where  Syphon's  voice  resounda, 
And  there  he  oft  doth  argue,  while  a  school 
Of  eager  pupils  owns  his  subtle  rule, 
And  virtue's  name  with  eager  chase  pursues." 

It  is  said  that  at  Athens  he  attracted  all  the  citizens  to  such 
a  degree,  that  they  used  to  run  from  their  workshops  to  look 
at  him  ;  and  when  some  one  said  to  him,  "  Why,  Stilpo,  they 
wonder  at  you  as  if  you  were  a  wild  beast,"  he  replied,  "Not 
so  ;  but  as  a  real  genuine  man." 

He  was  a  very  clever  arguer ;  and  rejected  the  theory  of 
species.  And  he  used  to  say  that  a  person  who  spoke  of  man 
in  general,  was  speaking  of  nobody  ;  for  that  he  was  not  speak- 
ing of  this  individual,  nor  of  that  one  :  for  speaking  in  general, 
how  can  he  speak  more  of  this  person  than  of  that  person  ? 
therefore  he  is  not  speaking  of  this  person  at  all.  Another 
of  his  illustrations  was,  "  That  which  is  shown  to  me,  is  not 
a  vegetable  ;  for  a  vegetable  existed  ten  thousand  years  ago, 
therefore  this  is  not  a  vegetable."  They  say  that  once  when 
he  was  conversing  with  Crates,  he  interrupted  the  discourse 
to  go  off  and  buy  some  fish  ;  and  as  Crates  tried  to  drag  him 

*  The  Greek  is  a  parody  on  the  descriptions  of  Tantalus  and  Siayphus.  Horn. 
Od. ,  ii.  581,  592. 


S  T  R  A  T  O  .  373 

back,  and  said,  "You  are  leaving  the  argument;"  "Not  at 
all,"  he  replied,  "  I  keep  the  argument,  but  I  am  leaving 
you ;  for  the  argument  remains,  but  the  fish  will  be  sold  to 
some  one  else." 

There  are  nine  dialogues  of  his  extant,  written  in  a  frigid 
style.  Being  asked  "  What  is  harder  than  a  stone  ?"  he  an- 
swered "  a  fool." 

Hermippus  says  that  he  died  at  a  great  age,  after  drinking 
some  wine,  in  order  to  die  more  rapidly.     And  we  have  writ- 
ten this  epigram  on  him  : — 
» 

Stranger,  old  age  at  first,  and  then  disease, 
A  hateful  pair,  did  lay  wise  Stilpo  low, 
The  pride  of  Alegara :  be  found  good  wine 
The  best  of  drivers  for  his  mournful  coach, 
And  drinking  it,  he  drove  on  to  the  end. 


STRATO. 

THEOPHKASTTTS  was  succeeded  in  the  presidency  of  his  school 
by  Strato  of  Lampsacus,  the  son  of  Arcesilaus,  of  whom  he 
had  made  mention  in  his  will.  He  was  a  man  of  great  emi- 
nence, surnamed  the  Natural  Philosopher,  from  his  surpassing 
all  men  in  the  diligence  with  which  he  applied  himself  to  the 
investigation  of  matters  of  that  nature.  He  was  also  the  pre- 
ceptor of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  and  received  from  him,  as  it 
is  said,  eighty  talents. 

They  say  that  he  became  so  thin  and  weak,  that  he  died 
without  its  being  perceived.  And  there  is  an  epigram  of  ours 
upon  him  in  the  following  terms : — 

The  man  was  thin,  believe  me,  from  the  use 
Of  frequent  unguents ;  Strato  was  his  name, 
A  citizen  of  Lampsacus ;  he  struggled  long 
With  fell  disease,  and  died  at  last  unnoticed. 

32 


374  T  II  A  L  E  3  . 


THALES. 

THALES  was  the  son  of  Euxamins  and  Cleobule ;  of  the 
family  of  the  Thelidas,  who  are  Phoenicians  by  descent,  among 
the  most  noble  of  all  the  descendants  of  Cadmus  and  Agenor, 
as  Plato  testifies.  And  he  was  the  first  man  to  whom  the 
name  of  Wise  was  given,  when  Damasius  was  Archon  at 
Athens,  in  whose  time  also  the  seven  wise  men  had  that  title 
given  to  them.  He  was  enrolled  as  a  citizen  at  Miletus  when 
he  came  thither  with  Neleus,  who  had  been  banished  from 
Phoenicia ;  but  a  more  common  statement  is  that  he  was  a 
native  Milesian,  of  noble  extraction. 

After  having  been  immersed  in  state  affairs  he  applied  him- 
self to  speculations  in  natural  philosophy;  though,  as  some 
people  state,  he  left  no  writings  behind  him.  For  the  book  on 
Naval  Astronomy,  which  is  attributed  to  him,  is  said  in  reality 
to  be  the  work  of  Focus  the  Samian.  But  Callimachus  was 
aware  that  he  was  the  discoverer  of  the  Lesser  Bear;  for  in 
his  Iambics  he  speak  of  him  thus  : 

And,  he,  'tis  said,  did  first  compute  the  stars 
Which  beam  in  Charles's  wain,  and  guide  the  bark 
Of  the  Phoenician  sailor  o'er  the  sea. 

According  to  others  he  wrote  two  books,  and  no  more,  about 
the  solstice  and  the  equinox ;  thinking  that  everything  else 
was  easily  to  be  comprehended.  According  to  other  state- 
ments, he  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  who  studied  astronomy, 
and  who  foretold  the  eclipses  and  motions  of  the  sun,  on 
which  account  Xenophanes  and  Herodotus  praise  him  greatly ; 
and  Heraclitus  and  Democritus  confirm  this  statement. 

Some  again  (one  of  whom  is  Chserilus  the  poet)  say  that  he 
was  the  first  person  who  affirmed  that  the  souls  of  men  were 
immortal ;  and  he  was  the  first  person,  too,  who  discovered  the 
path  of  the  sun  from  one  end  of  the  ecliptic  to  the  other ;  and 
who,  as  one  account  tells  us,  defined  the  magnitude  of  the  sun 


T  H  A  L  E  8  .  375 

as  being  seven  hundred  and  twenty  times  as  great  as  that  of 
the  moon.  He  was  also  the  first  person  who  called  the  last 
day  of  the  month  the  thirtieth.  And  likewise  the  first  to  con- 
verse about  natural  philosophy,  as  some  say.  But  Aristotle 
and  Hippias  say  that  he  attributed  souls  also  to  lifeless  things, 
forming  his  conjecture  from  the  nature  of  the  magnet,  and  of 
amber.  And  Pamphile  relates  that  he,  having  learnt  geometry 
from  the  Egyptians,  was  the  first  person  to  describe  a  right- 
angled  triangle  in  a  circle,  and  that  he  sacrificed  an  ox  in  hon- 
or of  his  discovery.  But  others,  among  whom  is  Apollodorus 
the  calculator,  say  that  it  was  Pythagoras  who  made  this  dis- 
covery. It  was  Thales  also  who  carried  to  theiu  greatest  point 
of  advancement  the  discoveries  which  Oallimachus  in  his  Iam- 
bics says  were  first  made  by  Euphebus  the  Phrygian,  such  as 
those  of  the  scalene  angle,  and  of  the  triangle,  and  of  other 
things  which  relate  to  investigations  about  lines.  He  seems 
also  to  have  been  a  man  of  the  greatest  wisdom  in  political 
matters.  For  when  Croesus  sent  to  the  Milesians  to  invite 
them  to  an  alliance,  he  prevented  them  from  agreeing  to  it, 
which  step  of  his,  as  Cyrus  got  the  victory,  proved  the  salva- 
tion of  the  city.  But  Cly  tus  relates,  as  Heraclides  assures  us, 
that  he  was  attached  to  a  solitary  and  recluse  life. 

Some  assert  that  he  was  married,  and  that  he  had  a  son 
named  Cibissus  ;  others,  on  the  contrary,  say  that  he  never 
had  a  wife,  but  that  he  adopted  the  son  of  his  sister;  and 
that  once  being  asked  why  he  did  not  himself  become  a  father, 
he  answered,  that  it  was  because  he  was  fond  of  children. 
They  say,  too,  that  when  his  mother  exhorted  him  to  marry, 
he  said,  "  No,  by  Jove,  it  is  not  yet  time."  And  afterwards, 
when  he  was  past  his  youth,  and  she  was  again  pressing  him 
earnestly,  he  said,  "  It  is  no  longer  time." 

Hieronymus,  of  Rhodes,  also  tells  us,  in  the  second  book  of 
his  Miscellaneous  Memoranda,  that  when  he  was  desirous  to 
that  it  was  easy  to  get  rich,  he,  foreseeing  that  there 


376  THALES. 

would  be  a  great  crop  of  olives,  took  some  large  plantations  of 
olive  trees,  and  so  made  a  great  deal  of  money. 

He  asserted  water  to  be  the  principle  of  all  things,  and  that 
the  world  had  life,  and  was  full  of  daemons :  they  say,  too, 
that  lie  was  the  original  definer  of  the  seasons  of  the  year, 
and  that  it  was  he  who  divided  the  year  into  three  hundred 
and  sixty-five  days.  And  he  never  had  any  teacher  except 
during  the  time  that  he  went  to  Egypt,  and  associated  with 
the  priests.  Hierouymus  also  says  that  he  measured  the  Pyr- 
amids:  watching  their  shadow,  and  calculating  when  they 
were  of  the  same  size  as  that  was.  He  lived  with  Thrasy- 
bulus,  the  tyrant  of  Miletus,  as  we  are  informed  by  Minyas. 

Now,  it  is  known  to  every  one  what  happened  with  respect 
to  the  tripod  that  was  found  by  the  fishermen  and  sent  to  the 
wise  men  by  the  people  of  the  Milesians.  For  they  say  that 
some  Ionian  youths  bought  a  cast  of  their  net  from  some  Mi- 
lesian fishermen.  And  when  the  tripod  was  drawn  up  in  the 
net  there  was  a  dispute  about  it ;  until  the  Milesians  sent  to 
Delphi ;  and  the  God  gave  them  the  following  answer :  — 

You  ask  about  the  tripod,  to  whom  you  shall  present  it ; 
'T  is  for  the  wisest,  I  reply,  that  fortune  surely  meant  it. 

Accordingly  they  gave  it  to  Thaler,  and  he  gave  it  to  some 
one,  who  again  handed  it  over  to  another,  till  it  came  to  So- 
lon. But  he  said  that  it  was  the  God  himself  who  was  the 
first  in  wisdom  ;  and  so  he  sent  it  to  Delphi.  But  Callhna- 
chus  gives  a  ditferent  account  of  this  in  his  Iambics,  taking  the 
tradition  which  he  mentions  from  Leander  the  Milesian ;  for 
he  says  that  a  certain  Arcadian  of  the  name  of  Bathydes, 
when  dying,  left  a  goblet  behind  him  with  an  injunction  that 
it  should  be  given  to  the  first  of  the  wise  men.  And  it  was 
given  to  Thales,  and  went  the  whole  circle  till  it  came  back 
to  Thales,  on  which  he  sent  it  to  Apollo  Didymseus,  adding 
(according  to  Callimachus)  the  following  distich  :- 

Thales,  who's  twice  received  me  as  a  prize, 
Gives  m«*  to  him  who  rules  the  race  of  Neleus. 


T  H  A  L  E  S  .  377 

And  the  prose  inscription  ran  thus : — 

Thales  the  son  of  Euxamius,  a  Milesian,  offers  this  to  Apollo  Didymaeus,  hav- 
ing twice  received  it  from  the  Greeks  as  the  reward  for  virtue. 

And  the  name  of  the  son  of  Bathydes  who  carried  the  gob- 
let about  from  one  to  the  other,  was  Thyrion,  as  Eleusis  tells 
us  in  his  history  of  Achilles.  And  Alexander  the  Myndian 
agrees  with  him  in  the  ninth  book  of  his  Traditions.  But 
Eudoxus  of  Cnidos,  and  Evanthes  of  Miletus,  say  that  one  of 
the  friends  of  Croesus  received  from  the  king  a  golden  goblet, 
for  the  purpose  of  giving  it  to  the  wisest  of  the  Greeks ;  and 
that  he  gave  it  to  Thales,  and  that  it  came  round  to  Chilo,  and 
that  he  inquired  of  the  God  at  Delphi  who  was  wiser  than 
himself;  and  that  the  God  replied,  Myson,  whom  we  shall 
mention  hereafter.  (He  is  the  man  whom  Eudoxus  places 
among  the  seven  wise  men  instead  of  Cleobolus ;  but  Plato 
inserts  his  name  instead  of  Periander.)  The  God  according- 
ly made  this  reply  concerning  him : — 

I  say  that  Myson,  the  ^Etoean  sage, 
The  citizen  of  Chen,  is  wiser  far 
In  his  deep  mind  than  you. 

The  person  who  went  to  the  temple  to  ask  the  question  was 
Anacharsis  ;  but  again  Dsedacus,  the  Platonic  philosopher,  and 
Clearchus,  state  that  the  goblet  was  sent  by  Croesus  to  Pitta- 
cus,  and  so  was  carried  round  to  the  different  men.  But 
Andron,  in  his  book  called  The  Tripod,  says  that  the  Argivos 
offered  the  tripod  as  a  prize  for  excellence  to  the  wisest  of  the 
Greeks;  and  that  Aristodemus,  a  Spartan,  was  judged  to  de- 
serve it,  but  that  he  yielded  the  palm  to  Chilo ;  and  Alcaaus 
mentions  Aristodemus  in  these  lines  : — 

And  so  they  say  that  Aristodeinus  once 
Uttered  a  truthful  speech  in  noble  Sparta : 
'T  is  money  makes  the  man  ;  and  he  who  's  none, 
Is  counted  neither  good  nor  honorable. 

But  some  say  that  a  vessel  fully  loaded  was  sent  by  Periander 
to  Thrasybulus,  the  tyrant  of  the  Milesians ;  and  that,  as  the 

32* 


378  T  H  A  L  E  S . 

ship  wa:i  wrecked  in  the  sea,  near  the  island  of  Cos,  this  tri- 
pod was  afterwards  found  by  some  fishermen.  Phanodicus 
says  that  it  was  found  in  the  sea  near  Athens,  and  so  brought 
into  the  city ;  and  then,  after  an  assembly  had  been  held  to 
decide  on  the  disposal,  it  was  sent  to  Bias — and  the  reason 
why  has  been  mentioned  in  our  account  of  Bias.  Others  say 
that  this  goblet  had  been  made  by  Vulcan,  and  presented  by 
the  Gods  to  Pelops,  on  his  marriage  ;  and  that  subsequently  it 
came  into  the  possession  of  Menelaus,  and  was  taken  away  by 
Paris  when  he  carried  off  Helen,  and  was  thrown  into  the  sea 
near  Cos  by  her,  as  she  said  that  it  would  become  a  cause  of 
battle.  And  after  some  time,  some  of  the  citizens  of  Lebedos 
having  bought  a  net,  this  tripod  was  brought  up  in  it ;  and  as 
they  quarrelled  with  the  fishermen  about  it,  they  went  to  Cos ; 
and  not  being  able  to  get  the  matter  settled  there,  they  laid  it 
before  the  Milesians,  as  Miletus  was  their  metropolis ;  and 
they  sent  ambassadors,  who  were  treated  with  neglect,  on 
which  account  they  made  war  with  the  Coans  ;  and  after  each 
side  had  met  with  many  revolutions  of  fortune,  an  oracle  di- 
rected that  the  tripod  should  be  given  to  the  wisest ;  and 
then  both  parties  agreed  that  it  belonged  to  Thales ;  and  he, 
after  it  had  gone  the  circuit  of  all  the  wise  men,  presented  it 
to  the  Didyma3.an  Apollo.  Now,  the  assignation  of  the  oracle 
was  given  to  the  Coans  in  the  following  words  : — 

The  war  between  the  brave  Ionian  race 

And  the  proud  Meropes  will  never  cease, 

'Till  the  rich  golden  tripod  which  the  God, 

Its  maker,  cast  beneath  the  briny  waves, 

Is  from  your  city  sent,  and  justly  given 

To  that  wise  being  who  knows  all  present  things, 

And  all  that 's  past,  and  all  that  is  to  come. 

And  the  reply  given  to  the  Milesians  was — 

You  ask  about  the  tripod : 

and  so  on,  as  I  ha  -e  related  it  before.  And  now  we  have  said 
enough  on  this  subject. 


T  H  A  L  E  S  .  379 

» 

But  Hermippus,  in  his  Lives,  refers  to  Thales  what  has  been 
by  some  people  reported  of  Socrates ;  for  he  recites  that  he 
used  to  say  that  he  thanked  fortune  for  three  things  : — first 
of  all,  that  he  had  been  born  a  man  and  not  a  beast ;  second- 
ly, that  he  was  a  man  and  not  a  woman ;  and  thirdly,  that  he 
was  a  Greek  and  not  a  barbarian. 

It  is  said  that  once  he  was  led  out  of  his  house  by  an  old 
woman  for  the  purpose  of  observing  the  stars,  and  he  fell  into 
a  ditch,  and  bewailed  himself,  on  which  the  old  woman  said 
to  him — "Do  you,  O  Thales,  who  cannot  see  what  is  under 
your  feet,  think  that  you  shall  understand  what  is  in  heaven  ?" 
Timon  also  knew  that  he  was  an  astronomer,  and  in  his  Silli 
he  praises  him,  saying : — 

Like  Thales,  wisest  of  the  seven  sages, 
That  great  astronomer. 

And  Lobon,  of  Argos,  says,  that  which  was  written  by  him 
extends  to  about  two  hundred  verses ;  and  that  the  following 
inscription  is  engraved  upon  his  statue  : — 

Miletus,  fairest  of  Ionian  cities, 

Gave  birth  to  Thales,  great  astronomer, 

Wisest  of  mortals  in  all  kinds  of  knowledge. 

And  these  are  quoted  as  some  of  his  lines : — 

It  is  not  many  words  that  real  wisdom  proves ; 

Breathe  ra'.her  one  wise  thought, 

Select  one  worthy  object, 
So  shall  you  best  the  endless  prate  of  silly  men  reprove. 

And  the  following  are  quoted  as  sayings  of  his  : — "  God  is  the 
most  ancient  of  all  things,  for  he  had  no  birth  :  the  world  is 
the  most  beautiful  of  things,  for  it  is  the  work  of  God  :  place 
is  the  greatest  of  things,  for  it  contains  all  things :  intellect 
is  the  swiftest  of  things,  for  it  runs  through  everything :  ne- 
cessity is  the  strongest  of  things,  for  it  rules  everything  :  time 
is  the  wisest  of  things,  for  it  finds  out  everything." 

PTe  said  also  that  there  was  no  difference  between  life  and 


380  T  HALES. 

death.  "  Why,  then,"  said  some  one  to  him,  "  do  not  you 
die?"  "Because,"  said  he,  "it  does  make  no  difference." 
A  man  asked  him  which  was  made  first,  night  or  day,  and  he 
replied,  "  Night  was  made  first  by  one  day."  Another  man 
asked  him  whether  a  man  who  did  wrong,  could  escape  the 
notice  of  the  Gods.  u  No,  not  even  if  he  thinks  wrong,"  said 
he.  An  adulterer  inquired  of  him  whether  he  should  swear 
that  he  had  not  committed  adultery.  "  Perjury,"  said  he,  "is 
no  worse  than  adultery."  When  he  was  asked  what  was  very 
difficult,  he  said,  "To  know  one's  self."  And  what  was  easy, 
"  To  advise  another."  \Yhat  was  most  pleasant  ?  "  To  be 
successful."  To  the  question,  "  What  is  the  divinity?"  he  re- 
plied, "  That  which  has  neither  beginning  nor  end."  When 
asked  what  hard  thing  he  had  seen,  he  said,  "  An  old  man  a 
tyrant."  When  the  question  was  put  to  him  how  a  man  might 
more  easily  endure  misfortune,  he  said,  "  If  he  saw  his  enemies 
more  unfortunate  still."  When  asked  how  men  might  live 
most  virtuously  and  most  justly,  he  said,  "  If  we  never  do 
ourselves  what  we  blame  in  others."  To  the  question,  "  Who 
was  happy?"  he  made  answer,  "He  who  is  healthy  in  his 
body,  easy  in  his  circumstances,  and  well-instructed  as  to  his 
mind."  He  said  that  men  ought  to  remember  those  friends 
who  were  absent  as  well  as  those  who  were  present,  and  not 
to  care  about  adorning  their  faces,  but  to  be  beautified  by  their 
studies.  "  Do  not,"  said  he,  "  get  rich  by  evil  actions,  and  let 
not  any  one  ever  be  able  to  reproach  you  with  speaking 
against  those  who  partake  of  your  friendship.  All  the  assist- 
ance that  you  give  to  your  parents,  the  same  you  have  a  right 
to  expect  from  your  children."  He  said  that  the  reason  of  the 
Nile  overflowing  was,  that  its  streams  were  beaten  back  by 
the  Etesian  winds  blowing  in  a  contrary  direction. 

Apollodorus,  in  his  Chronicles,  says,  that  Thales  was  born 
in  the  first  year  of  the  thirty-fifth  Olympiad  ;  and  he  died  at 
the  age  of  seventy-eight  years,  or,  according  to  the  statement 
of  Sosicrates,  at  the  age  of  ninety,  for  he  died  in  the  fifty -eighth 


THEMISTIUS.  381 

Olympiad,  having  lived  in  the  time  of  Croesus,  to  whom  he 
promised  that  he  would  enable  him  to  pass  the  Halys  without 
a  bridge,  by  turning  the  course  of  the  river. 

Thales  died  while  present  as  a  spectator  at  a  gymnastic  con- 
test, being  worn  out  with  heat  and  thirst  and  weakness,  for 
he  was  very  old,  and  the  following  inscription  was  placed  on 

his  tomb : — 

You  see  this  tomb  is  small — but  recollect, 
The  fame  of  Thales  reaches  to  the  skies. 

I  have  also  myself  composed  this  epigram  on  him  in  the  first 
book  of  my  epigrams,  or  poems  in  various  metres  : — 

O  mighty  sun,  our  wisest  Thales  sat 

Spectator  of  the  games,  when  you  did  seize  upon  him  ; 
But  you  were  right  to  take  him  near  yourself, 

Now  that  his  aged  sight  could  scarcely  reach  to  heaven 


THEMISTIUS. 

THEMISTIUS,  who  was  born  in  an  obscure  town  of  Paphla- 
gonia,  fixed  his  residence  at  Constantinople,  and  taught  elo- 
quence and  philosophy  with  great  success.  He  had  many  dis- 
ciples, both  Pagan  and  Christian;  among  the  former  was 
Libanius ;  among  the  latter,  Gregory  Nazianzen.  He  enjoyed 
the  favor  of  the  emperors,  by  whom  he  was  admitted  to  the 
highest  honors.  Constantius,  in  the  year  three  hundred  and 
fifty-five,  received  him  into  the  senate,  and  afterwards,  in  re- 
tarn  for  an  eloquent  eulogium,  presented  him  with  a  brazen 
statue.  Julian  received  him  as  a  friend,  and  frequently  cor- 
responded with  him.  In  the  year  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
two  he  was  appointed  by  this  emperor  prefect  of  Constanti- 
nople. He  enjoyed  equal  distinction  under  the  succeeding 
emperors,  from  whom  he  obtained  by  his  eloquence  whatever 
he  wished.  Theodosius  the  Great,  during  his  visit  to  the 
"Western  empire,  entrusted  Themistius  with  the  care  and  edc- 


382  T  H  £  O  P  II  K  A  S  T  U  S  . 

cation  of  his  son  Arcadius.  His  eloquence,  wisdom,  and  ability 
in  public  affairs,  united  witli  uncommon  gentleness  of  temper 
and  urbanity  of  manners,  were  the  foundation  of  that  long 
course  of  civil  honors  by  which  his  life  was  distinguished. 
About  the  year  three  hundred  and  eighty-seven  Themistius 
withdrew,  at  an  advanced  age,  from  public  business,  and  soon 
after  died. 

A  memorable  example  of  the  liberal  spirit  of  Themistius 
is  related  by  ecclesiastical  historians.  The  emperor  Valens, 
who  favored  the  Arian  party,  inflicted  many  hardships  and 
sufferings  upon  the  Trinitarians,  and  daily  threatened  them 
with  still  greater  severities.  Themistius,  to  whom  these  meas- 
ures were  exceedingly  displeasing,  addressed  the  emperor 
upon  the  subject  in  an  eloquent  speech,  in  which  he  repre- 
sented the  diversity  of  opinions  among  the  Christians  as  in- 
considerable, compared  with  that  of  the  Pagan  philosophers; 
and  pleaded  that  this  diversity  could  not  be  displeasing  to  God, 
since  it  did  not  prevent  men  from  worshipping  him  with  true 
piety.  By  these  and  other  arguments  Themistius  prevailed 
upon  the  emperor  to  treat  the  Trinitarians  with  great  lenity. 


THEOPHRASTUS. 

THEOPHEASTTJS  was  a  native  of  Eresus,  the  son  of  Melantas, 
a  fuller.  He  was  originally  a  pupil  of  Leucippus,  his  fellow 
citizen,  in  his  own  country  ;  and  subsequently,  after  having  at- 
tended the  lectures  of  Plato,  he  went  over  to  Aristotle.  And 
when  he  withdrew  to  Chalcis,  he  succeeded  him  as  president 
of  his  school,  in  the  hundred  and  fourteenth  Olympiad. 

It  is  also  said  that  a  slave  of  his,  by  name  Pomphylus,  was 
a  philosopher. 

Theophrastus  was  a  man  of  great  acuteness  and  industry, 
and  he  was  the  tutor  of  Menandar,  the  comic  poet.  He  was 


T  H  E  O  P  H  R  A  a  T  U  S .  383 

also  a  most  benevolent  man,  and  very  affable.  Accordingly, 
Cassander  received  him  as  a  friend;  and  Ptolemy  sent  to  invite 
him  to  his  court.  And  he  was  thought  so  very  highly  of  at 
Athens,  that  when  Agonides  ventured  to  impeach  him  on  a 
charge  of  impiety,  he  was  very  nearly  fined  for  his  hardihood. 
And  there  thronged  to  his  school  a  crowd  of  disciples  to  the 
number  of  two  thousand.  In  his  letter  to  Phanias,  the  Peri- 
patetic, among  other  subjects  he  speaks  of  the  court  of  justice 
in  the  following  terms :  "  It  is  not  only  out  of  the  question  to  find 
an  assembly,  but  it  is  not  easy  to  find  even  a  company,  such 
as  one  would  like ;  but  yet  recitations  produce  corrections  of 
the  judgment.  And  my  age  does  not  allow  me  to  put  off 
everything  and  to  feel  indifference  on  such  a  subject."  In 
this  letter  he  speaks  of  himself  as  one  who  devotes  his  whole 
leisure  to  learning. 

And  though  he  was  of  this  disposition,  he  nevertheless  went 
away  for  a  short  time,  both  he  and  all  the  rest  of  the  philos- 
ophers, in  consequence  of  Sophocles,  the  son  of  Amphiclides, 
having  brought  forward  and  carried  a  law  that  no  one  of  the 
philosophers  should  preside  over  a  school  unless  the  council 
and  the  people  had  passed  a  resolution  to  sanction  their  doing 
so;  if  they  did,  death  was  to  be  the  penalty.  But  they  re- 
turned again  the  next  year,  when  Philion  had  impeached 
Sophocles  for  illegal  conduct;  when  the  Athenians  abrogated 
his  law,  and  fined  Sophocles  five  talents,  and  voted  that  the 
philosophers  should  have  leave  to  return,  that  Theophrastus 
might  return  and  preside  over  his  school  as  before. 

His  name  had  originally  been  Tyrtanius,  but  Aristotle 
changed  it  to  Theophrastus,  from  the  divine  character  of  his 
eloquence.* 

It  is  also  related  that  Aristotle  used  the  same  expression 
about  him  and  Callisthenes,  which  Plato  employed  about 
Xenocrates  and  Aristotle  himself.  For  he  is  reported  to  have 
said,  since  Theophrastus  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  acute- 

*  From  thews,  divine,  and  phrasis,  diction. 


884  THEOPHRASTUS. 

ness,  who  could  both  comprehend  and  explain  everything, 
and  as  the  other  was  somewhat  slow  in  his  natural  character, 
that  Theophrastus  required  a  bridle,  and  Callisthenes  a  spur. 

It  is  said,  too,  that  he  had  a  garden  of  his  own  after  the 
death  of  Aristotle,  by  the  assistance  of  Demetrius  Phalerius, 
who  was  an  intimate  friend  of  his. 

The  following  very  practical  apophthegms  of  his  are  quoted. 
He  used  to  say  that  it  was  better  to  trust  to  a  horse  without 
a  bridle  than  to  a  discourse  without  arrangement.  And 
once,  when  a  man  preserved  a  strict  silence  during  the  whole 
of  a  banquet,  he  said  to  him,  "  If  you  are  an  ignorant  man, 
you  are  acting  wisely ;  but  if  you  have  had  any  education,  you 
are  behaving  like  a  fool."  And  a  very  favorite  expression  of 
his  was,  that  "  time  was  the  most  valuable  thing  that  a  man 
could  spend." 

He  died  when  he  was  of  a  great  age,  having  lived  eighty- 
five  years,  when  he  had  only  rested  from  his  labors  a  short 
time.  And  we  have  composed  the  following  epigram  on 
him : — 

The  proverb  then  is  not  completely  false, 
That  wisdom's  bow  unbent  is  quickly  broken  ; 
While  Theophrastus  labored,  he  kept  sound, 
When  he  relaxed,  he  lost  his  strength  and  died. 

They  say  that  on  one  occasion,  when  dying,  he  was  asked  by 
his  disciples  whether  he  had  any  charge  to  give  them  ;  and  he 
replied,  that  he  had  none,  but  that  they  should  "  remember 
that  life  holds  out  many  pleasing  deceits  to  us  by  the  vanity 
of  glory  ;  for  that  when  we  are  beginning  to  live,  then  we  are 
dying.  There  is,  therefore,  nothing  more  profitless  than  am- 
bition. But  may  you  all  be  fortunate,  and  either  abandon 
philosophy  (for  it  is  a  great  labor),  or  else  cling  to  it  diligent- 
ly, for  then  the  credit  of  it  is  great ;  but  the  vanities  of  life 
exceed  the  advantage  of  it.  However,  it  is  not  requisite  for 
me  now  to  advise  you  what  you  should  do ;  but  do  you  your- 
selves consider  what  line  of  conduct  to  adopt."  And  when 


XENOCRATES.  385 

he  had  said  this,  as  report  goes,  he  expired.  And  the  Athen- 
ians accompanied  him  to  the  grave,  on  foot,  with  the  whole 
population  of  the  city,  as  it  is  related,  honoring  the  man 
greatly. 


XENOCRATES. 

XENOOKATES  was  the  son  of  Agathenor,  and  a  native  of 
Chalcedon.  From  his  early  youth  he  was  a  pupil  of  Plato, 
and  also  accompanied  him  in  his  voyages  to  Sicily.  He  was 
by  nature  of  a  lazy  disposition,  so  that  they  say  that  Plato 
said  once,  when  comparing  him  to  Aristotle, — "The  one  re- 
quires the  spur,  and  the  other  the  bridle."  And  on  another 
occasion,  he  said,  "  What  a  horse  and  what  an  ass  am  I  dress- 
ing opposite  to  one  another  !" 

In  other  respects  Xenocrates  was  always  of  a  solemn  and 
grave  character,  so  that  Plato  was  continually  saying  to  him, 
— "Xenocrates,  sacrifice  to  the  Graces."  And  he  spent  the 
greater  part  of  his  time  in  the  Academy,  and  whenever  he 
was  about  to  go  into  the  city,  they  say  all  the  turbulent  and 
quarrelsome  rabble  in  the  city  used  to  make  way  for  him  to 
pass  by.  And  once,  Phryne  the  courtesan  wished  to  try  him, 
and  pretending  that  she  was  pursued  by  some  people,  she  fled 
and  took  refuge  in  his  house ;  and  he  admitted  her  indeed, 
because  of  what  was  due  to  humanity  ;  and  as  there  was  but 
one  bed  in  the  room,  he,  at  her  entreaty,  allowed  her  to  share 
it  with  him  ;  but  at  last,  in  spite  of  all  her  entreaties,  she  got 
up  and  went  away,  without  having  been  able  to  succeed  in  her 
purpose ;  and  told  those  who  asked  her,  that  she  had  quitted 
a  statue  and  not  a  man.  But  some  say  that  the  real  story  is, 
that  his  pupils  put  Lais  into  his  bed,  and  that  he  was  so  con- 
tinent, that  he  submitted  to  some  severe  operations  of  excis- 
ion and  cautery. 

33 


386  XENOCRATES. 

He  waf  so  abstemious  in  the  use  of  food,  that  his  provision 
was  frequently  spoiled  before  it  was  consumed. 

So  eminent  was  his  reputation  for  integrity,  that  when  he 
was  called  upon  to  give  evidence  in  a  judicial  transaction,  in 
which  an  oath  was  usually  required,  the  judges  unanimously 
agreed  that  his  simple  asseveration  should  be  taken,  as  a  pub- 
lic testimony  to  his  merit. 

He  was  also  a  man  of  the  most  contented  disposition ;  ac- 
cordingly they  say  that  when  Alexander  sent  him  a  large  sum 
of  money,  he  took  three  thousand  Attic  drachmas,  and  sent 
back  the  rest,  saying,  that  Alexander  wanted  most,  as  he  had 
the  greatest  number  of  mouths  to  feed.  And  when  some  was 
sent  him  by  Antipater,  he  would  not  accept  any  of  it,  as  My- 
ornianus  tells  us  in  his  Similitudes.  And  once,  when  he 
gained  a  golden  crown,  in  a  contest  as  to  who  could  drink 
most,  which  was  offered  in  the  yearly  festival  of  the  Ohoes 
by  Dionysius,  he  went  out  and  placed  the  crown  at  the  feet  of 
the  statue  of  Mercury,  which  was  at  the  gate  where  he  was 
also  accustomed  to  deposit  his  garland  of  flowers.  It  is  said, 
also,  that  he  was  once  sent  with  some  colleagues  as  an  ambas- 
sador to  Philip ;  and  that  they  were  won  over  by  gifts,  and 
went  to  his  banquets  and  conversed  with  Philip  ;  but  that  he 
would  do  none  of  these  things,  nor  could  Philip  propitiate 
him  by  these  means ;  on  which  account,  when  the  other  am- 
bassadors arrived  in  Athens,  they  said  that  Xenocrates  had 
gone  with  them  to  no  purpose ;  and  the  people  were  ready  to 
punish  him ;  but  when  they  had  learnt  from  him  that  they 
had  now  more  need  than  ever  to  look  to  the  welfare  of  their 
city,  for  that  Philip  had  already  bribed  all  their  counsellors, 
but  that  he  had  been  unable  to  win  him  over  by  any  means, 
then  they  say  that  the  people  honored  him  with  redoubled 
honor.  They  add  also,  that  Philip  said  afterwards,  that  Xe- 
nocrates was  the  only  one  of  those  who  had  come  to  him  who 
was  incorruptible.  And  when  he  went  as  ambassador  to  An- 
tipater on  the  subject  of  the  Athenian  captives  at  the  time  of 


XENOCRATES.  387 

the  Samian  war,  and  was  invited  by  him  to  a  banquet,  he  ad- 
dressed him  in  the  following  lines : — 

I  answer,  Goddess  human,  is  thy  breast 

By  justice  sway'd,  by  teuder  pity  prest  ? 

Ill  fits  it  me,  whose  friends  are  sunk  to  beasts, 

To  quaff  thy  bowls,  or  riot  in  thy  feasts : 

Me  would'st  thou  please,  for  them  thy  cares  employ, 

And  them  to  me  restore  and  me  to  joy.* 

And  Antipater,  admiring  the  appropriateness  of  the  quotation, 
immediately  released  them. 

On  one  occasion,  when  a  sparrow  was  pursued  by  a  hawk, 
and  flew  into  his  bosom,  he  caressed  it,  and  let  it  go*again, 
saying  that  "  We  ought  not  to  betray  a  suppliant."  And  be- 
ing ridiculed  by  Bion,  he  said  that  he  would  not  answer  bim,  for 
that  tragedy,  when  ridiculed  by  comedy,  did  not  condescend  to 
make  a  reply.  To  one  who  had  never  learnt  music,  or  geom- 
etry, or  astronomy,  but  who  wished  to  become  his  disciple, 
he  said,  "  Be  gone,  for  you  have  not  yet  the  handles  of  phi- 
losophy." But  some  say  that  he  said,  "  Be  gone,  for  I  do  not 
card  wool  here."  And  when  Dionysius  said  to  Plato  that 
some  one  would  cut  off  his  head,  he,  being  present,  showed 
his  own,  and  said,  "  Not  before  they  have  cut  of  mine."  On 
one  occasion,  when  he  did  not  reply  to  some  detractive  insin- 
uations, he  was  asked  why  he  was  silent?  He  answered,  "I 
have  sometimes  repented  of  speaking,  but  never  of  holding 
my  peace." 

They  say,  too,  that  once,  when  Antipater  had  come  to  Ath- 
ens and  saluted  him,  he  would  not  make  him  any  reply  before 
he  had  finished  quietly  the  discourse  which  he  was  delivering. 

Being  exceedingly  devoid  of  every  kind  of  pride,  he  often 
used  to  meditate  with  himself  several  times  a  day  ;  and  al- 
ways allotted  one  hour  of  each  day,  it  is  said,  to  silence.  He 
used  to  compare  himself  to  a  vessel  with  a  narrow  orifice, 
which  receives  with  difficulty,  but  firmly  retains  whatever  is 

put  into  it. 

»  Horn.  Od.  x.  387.    Pope's  Version,  450. 


388  XENOPHON. 

But  the  Athenians,  though  he  was  such  a  great  man,  once 
sold  him  because  he  was  unable  to  pay  the  tax  to  which  the 
rnetics  were  liable.  And  Demetrius  Phalereus  purchased  him, 
and  so  assisted  both  parties,  Xenocrates  by  giving  him  his 
freedom,  and  the  Athenians  in  respect  of  the  tax  upon  metics. 

He  succeeded  Speusippus,  and  presided  over  the  school  for 
twenty-five  years,  beginning  at  the  archonship  of  Lysimach- 
ides,  in  the  second  year  of  the  hundred  and  tenth  Olympiad. 

And  he  died  in  consequence  of  stumbling  by  night  against 
a  dish,  and  falling  into  a  reservoir  of  water,  being  more  than 
eighty-two  years  of  age.  And  in  one  of  our  epigrams  we 
speak  thus  of  him  : — 

He  struck  against  a  brazen  pot, 

And  cut  his  forehead  deep, 
And  crying  cruel  is  my  lot, 

In  death  he  fell  asleep. 
So  thus  Xenocrates  did  fall, 
The  universal  friend  of  all. 


XENOPHON. 

XENOPHON,  the  son  of  Gryllus,  a  citizen  of  Athens,  was  of 
the  borough  of  Erchia ;  he  was  a  man  of  great  modesty,  and 
as  handsome  as  can  be  imagined. 

They  say  that  Socrates  met  him  in  a  narrow  lane,  and  put 
his  stick  across  it,  and  prevented  him  from  passing,  by  asking 
him  where  all  kinds  of  necessary  things  were  sold.  And 
when  he  had  answered  him,  he  asked  him  again  where  men 
were  made  good  and  virtuous.  And  as  he  did  not  know,  he 
said,  "  Follow  me,  then,  and  learn."  And  from  this  time  forth, 
Xenophon  became  a  follower  of  Socrates. 

He  was  the  first  person  who  took  down  conversations  as 
they  occurred,  and  published  them  among  men,  calling  them 


XENOPHON.  389 

memorabilia.  He  was  also  the  first  man  who  wrote  a  history 
of  philosophers. 

Aristippus,  in  the  fourth  book  of  his  treatise  on  Ancient 
Luxury,  says  that  he  loved  Clinias;  and  that  he  said  to  him, 
;'  Now  I  look  upon  Clinias  with  more  pleasure  than  upon  all 
the  other  beautiful  things  which  are  to  be  seen  among  men  ; 
and  I  would  rather  be  blind  as  to  all  the  rest  of  the  world, 
than  as  to  Clinias.  And  I  am  annoyed  even  with  night  and 
with  sleep,  because  then  I  do  not  see  him ;  but  I  am  very 
grateful  to  the  sun  and  to  daylight,  because  they  show  Clinias 
to  me." 

He  became  a  friend  of  Cyrus  in  this  manner :  He  had  an 
acquaintance,  by  name  Proxenus,  a  Boeotian  by  birth,  a  pupil 
of  Gorgias  of  Leontini,  and  a  friend  of  Cyrus.  He  being  in 
Sardis,  staying  at  the  court  of  Cyrus,  wrote  a  letter  to  Athens 
to  Xenophon,  inviting  him  to  come  and  be  a  friend  to  Cyrus. 
And  Xenophon  showed  the  letters  to  Socrates,  and  asked  his 
advice.  And  Socrates  bade  him  go  to  Delphi,  and  ask  counsel 
of  the  God.  And  Xenophon  did  so,  and  went  to  the  God  ; 
but  the  question  he  put  was,  not  whether  it  was  good  for  him 
to  go  to  Cyrus  or  not,  but  how  he  should  go ;  for  which  Soc- 
rates blamed  him,  but  still  advised  him  to  go.  Accordingly  he 
went  to  Cyrus,  and  became  no  less  dear  to  him  than  Proxe- 
nus. And  all  the  circumstances  of  the  expedition  and  the 
retreat,  he  himself  has  sufficiently  related  to  us. 

But  he  was  at  enmity  with  Menon  the  Pharsalian,  who  was 
commander  of  the  foreign  troops  at  the  time  of  the  expedi- 
tion; and  amongst  other  reproaches,  he  says  that  he  was 
much  addicted  to  the  worst  kind  of  debauchery.  And  he  re- 
proaches a  man  of  the  name  of  Apollonides  with  having  his 
ears  bored. 

But  after  the  expedition,  and  the  disasters  which  took  place 
in  Pontus,  and  the  violations  of  the  truce  of  Seuthes,  the  king 
of  the  Odrysse,  he  came  into  Asia  to  Agesilaus,  the  king  of 
Lacedsemon.  bringing  with  him  the  soldiers  of  Cyrus,  to  serve 

33* 


390  Z  E  N  O  . 

for  pay;  and  he  became  a  very  great  friend  of  Agesilans. 
About  the  same  time  he  was  condemned  to  banishment  by  the 
Athenians,  on  the  charge  of  being  a  favorer  of  the  Lacedae- 
monians. Being  in  Ephesns,  and  having  a  sum  of  money  in 
gold,  he  gave  half  of  it  to  Megabyzus,  the  priest  of  Diana,  to 
keep  for  him  till  his  return ;  and  if  he  never  returned,  then  he 
was  to  expend  it  upon  a  statue,  and  dedicate  that  to  the  God- 
dess; and  with  the  other  half  he  sent  offerings  to  Delphi. 
From  thence  he  went  with  Agesilaus  into  Greece,  as  Agesilaus 
was  summoned  to  take  part  in  the  war  against  the  Thebans. 
The  Lacedaemonians  made  him  a  friend  of  their  city. 

He  was  a  man  of  great  distinction  in  all  points,  and  very 
fond  of  horses  and  of  dogs,  and  a  great  tactician,  as  is  mani- 
fest from  his  writings.  And  he  was  a  pious  man,  fond  of  sac- 
rificing to  the  Gods,  and  a  great  authority  as  to  what  was  due 
to  them,  and  a  very  ardent  admirer  and  imitator  of  Socrates. 

He  also  wrote  near  forty  books;  though  different  critics 
divide  them  differently.  After  the  battle,  which  was  fought 
at  Mantinea,  they  say  that  Xenophon  offered  sacrifice,  wearing 
a  crown  on  his  head ;  but  when  the  news  of  the  death  of  his 
son  arrived,  he  took  off  the  crown ;  but  after  that,  hearing 
that  he  had  fallen  gloriously,  he  put  the  crown  on  again.  And 
some  say  that  he  did  not  even  shed  a  tear,  but  said,  "  I  knew 
that  I  was  the  father  of  a  mortal  man."  And  Aristotle  says, 
that  innumerable  writers  wrote  panegyrics  and  epitaphs  upon 
Gryllus,  partly  out  of  a  wish  to  gratify  his  father. 


ZENO. 

ZENO  was  the  son  of  Innaseas,  or  Demeas,  and  a  native  of 
Oitium,  in  Cyprus,  which  is  a  Grecian  city,  partly  occupied 
by  a  Phoanician  colony. 

He  had  his  head  naturally  bent  on  one  side.     And  he  was 


ZENO.  391 

thin,  very  tall,  of  a  dark  complexion ;  in  reference  to  which 
some  one  called  him  an  Egyptian  Clematis  :  he  had  fat,  flabby, 
weak  legs,  on  which  account  Persaaus,  in  his  Convivial  Kemi- 
nisceuses,  says  that  he  used  to  refuse  many  invitations  to  sup- 
per ;  and  he  was  very  fond,  as  it  is  said,  of  figs  both  fresh  and 
dried  in  the  sun. 

He  was  a  pupil  of  Crates.  After  that,  they  say  that  he  be- 
came a  pupil  of  Stilpon  and  Xenocrates,  for  ten  years.  He  is 
also  said  to  have  been  a  pupil  of  Polemo.  But  Hecaton,  and 
Apollonius,  of  Tyre,  in  the  first  book  of  his  essay  on  Zeno, 
say  that  when  he  consulted  the  oracle,  as  to  what  he  ought  to 
do  to  live  in  the  most  excellent  manner,  the  God  answered 
him  that  he  ought  to  become  of  the  same  complexion  as  the 
dead,  on  which  he  inferred  that  he  ought  to  apply  himself  to 
the  reading  of  the  books  of  the  ancients.  Accordingly,  he 
attached  himself  to  Crates  in  the  following  manner.  Having 
purchased  a  quantity  of  purple  from  Phoenicia,  he  was  ship- 
wrecked close  to  the  Piraeus ;  and  when  he  had  made  his  way 
from  the  coast  as  far  as  Athens,  he  sat  down  by  a  book- 
seller's stall,  being  now  about  thirty  years  of  age.  And  as  he 
took  up  the  second  book  of  Xenophon's  Memorabilia  and 
began  to  read  it,  he  was  delighted  with  it,  and  asked  where 

such  men  as  were  described  in  that  book  lived  :  and  as  Crates 

j 

happened  very  seasonably  to  pass  at  the  moment,  the  book- 
seller pointed  him  out,  and  said,  "Follow  that  man."  From 
that  time  forth  he  became  a  pupil  of  Crates  ;  but  though  he 
was  in  other  respects  very  energetic  in  his  application  to  phi- 
losophy, still  he  was  too  modest  for  the  sharnelessness  of  the 
Cynics.  On  which  account,  Crates,  wishing  to  cure  him  of 
this  false  shame,  gave  him  a  jar  of  lentil  porridge  to  carry 
through  the  Ceramicus ;  and  when  he  saw  that  he  was 
ashamed,  and  that  he  endeavored  to  hide  it,  he  struck  the 
jar  with  his  staff,  and  broke  it;  and  as  Zeno  fled  away,  and 
the  lentil  porridge  ran  all  down  his  legs,  Crates  called  after 
him,  "  Why  do  you  run  away,  my  little  Phoenician,  you  have 


392  z  E  N  o . 

done  no  harm  ?"  For  some  time  taen  he  continued  a  pupil  of 
Crates,  and  when  he  wrote  his  treatise  entitled  the  Republic, 
some  said,  jokingly,  that  he  had  written  it  upon  the  tail  of  the 
dog. 

But  at  last  he  left  Crates,  and  became  the  pupil  of  the  phi- 
losophers- whom  I  have  mentioned  before,  and  continued  with 
them  for  twenty  years.  So  that  it  is  related  that  he  said,  "  I 
now  find  that  I  made  a  prosperous  voyage  when  I  was 
wrecked."  But  some  affirm  that  he  made  this  speech  in 
reference  to  Crates.  Others  say,  that  while  he  was  staying  at 
Athens  he  heard  of  a  shipwreck,  and  said,  "  Fortune  does 
well  in  having  driven  us  on  philosophy."  But  as  some  relate 
the  affair,  he  was  not  wrecked  at  all,  but  sold  all  his  cargo  at 
Athens,  and  then  turned  to  philosophy. 

And  he  used  to  walk  up  and  down  in  the  beautiful  colonnade 
which  is  called  the  Priscanactium,  and  which  is  also  called 
poilrile,  (i.  e.  ornamented  with  variegated  painting,)  from  the 
paintings  of  Polygnotus,  and  there  he  delivered  his  discourses, 
wishing  to  make  that  spot  tranquil ;  for  in  the  time  of  the 
thirty,  nearly  fourteen  hundred  of  the  citizens  had  been 
murdered  there  by  them. 

Accordingly,  for  the  future,  men  came  thither  to  hear  him, 
and  from  this  his  pupils  were  called  Stoics,  and  so  were  his 
successors  also,  who  had  been  at  first  called  Zenonians,  as 
Epicurus  tells  us  in  his  Epistles.  And  before  this  time,  the 
poets  who  frequented  this  colonnade  (stoa)  had  been  called 
Stoics  ;  but  now  Zeno's  pupils  made  the  name  more  notorious. 
Now  the  Athenians  had  a  great  respect  for  Zeno,  so  that  they 
gave  him  the  keys  of  their  walls,  and  they  also  honored  him 
with  a  golden  crown,  and  a  brazen  statue  ;  and  this  was  also 
done  by  his  own  countrymen,  who  thought  the  statue  of  such 
a  man  an  honor  to  their  city.  And  the  Cittiseans,  in  the  dis- 
trict of  Sidon,  also  claimed  him  as  their  countryman. 

He  was  also  mud.  respected  by  Antigonus,  who,  whenever 
he  came  to  Athen*  used  to  attend  his  lectures,  and  was 


z  E  N  o .  393 

constantly  inviting  him  to  come  to  him.  But  he  begged  off 
himself,  and  sent  Persaeus,  one  of  his  intimate  friends,  who 
was  the  son  of  Demetrius,  and  a  Cittiaean  by  birth,  and  who 
flourished  about  the  hundred  and  thirtieth  Olympiad,  when 
Zeno  was  an  old  man.  The  letter  of  Antigonus  to  Zeno  was 
as  follows,  and  it  is  reported  by  Apollonius,  the  Syrian,  in  his 
essay  on  Zeno. 

KING   ANTIGONUS    TO   ZENO    THE    PHILOSOPHER,  GEEETING. 

"  I  think  that  in  good  fortune  and  glory  I  have  the  advan- 
tage of  you ;  but  in  reason  and  education  I  am  inferior  to  you, 
and  also  in  that  perfect  happiness  which  you  have  attained  to. 
On  which  account  I  have  thought  it  good  to  address  you,  and 
invite  you  to  come  to  me,  being  convinced  tbat  you  will  not 
refuse  what  is  asked,  of  you.  Endeavor,  therefore,  by  all 
means  to  come  to  me,  considering  this  fact,  that  you  will  not 
be  the  instructor  of  rne  alone,  but  of  all  the  Macedonians 
together.  For  he  who  instructs  the  ruler  of  the  Macedonians, 
and  who  leads  him  in  the  path  of  virtue,  evidently  marshals 
all  his  subjects  on  the  road  to  happiness.  For  as  the  ruler  is, 
so  is  it  natural  that  his  subjects  for  the  most  part  should  be 
also." 

And  Zeno  wrote  him  back  the  following  answer  : — 

ZENO    TO   KING   ANTIGONUS,  GREETING. 

"  I  admire  your  desire  for  learning,  as  being  a  true  object 
for  the  wishes  of  mankind,  and  one  too  that  tends  to  their 
advantage.  And  the  man  who  aims  at  the  study  of  philosophy 
has  a  proper  disregard  for  the  populai  kind  of  instruction 
which  tends  only  to  the  corruption  of  the  morals.  And  you, 
passing  by  the  pleasure  which  is  so  much  spoken  of,  which 
makes  the  minds  of  some  young  men  effeminate,  show  plainly 
that  you  are  inclined  to  noble  pursuits,  not  merely  by  your 
nature,  but  also  by  your  own  deliberate  choice.  And  a  noble 
nature,  when  it  has  received  even  a  slight  degree  of  training, 


394  ZENO. 

* 

and  which  also  meets  with  those  who  will  teach  it  abundantly, 
proceeds  without  difficulty  to  a  perfect  attainment  of  virtue. 
But  I  now  find  my  bodily  health  impaired  by  old  age,  for  I 
am  eighty  years  old  :  on  which  account  I  am  unable  to  come 
to  you.  But  I  send  you  some  of  those  who  have  studied  with 
me,  who  in  that  learning  which  has  reference  to  the  soul,  are 
in  no  respect  inferior  to  me,  and  in  their  bodily  vigor  are 
greatly  my  superiors.  And  if  you  associate  with  them  you 
will  want  nothing  that  can  bear  upon  perfect  happiness." 

So  he  sent  him  Persasus  and  Philonides,  the  Theban,  both 
of  whom  are  mentioned  by  Epicurus,  in  his  letter  to  his 
brother  Aristobulus,  as  being  companions  of  Antigonus. 

I  have  thought  it  worth  while  also  to  set  down  the  decree 
of  the  Athenians  concerning  him ;  and  it  is  couched  in  the 
following  language  : — 

"  In  the  archonship  of  Arrhenides,  in  the  fifth  presidency  of 
the  tribe  Acamantis,  on  the  twenty-first  day  of  the  month 
Mairaacterion,  on  the  twenty-third  day  of  the  aforesaid  presi- 
dency, in  a  duly  convened  assembly,  Hippo,  the  son  of  Cratis- 
toteles,  of  the  borough  of  Xypetion,  being  one  of  the  presidents, 
and  the  rest  of  the  presidents,  his  colleagues,  put  the  follow- 
ing decree  to  the  vote.  And  the  decree  was  proposed  by 
Thrason  of  Anacaaa,  the  son  of  Thrason. 

"  Since  Zeno,  the  son  of  Innaseas,  the  Cittisean,  has  passed 
many  years  in  the  city,  in  the  study  of  philosophy,  being  in. 
all  other  respects  a  good  man,  and  also  exhorting  all  the 
young  men  who  have  sought  his  company  to  the  practice  of 
virtue,  and  encouraging  them  in  the  practice  of  temperance  ; 
making  his  own  life  a  model  to  all  men  of  the  greatest  excel- 
lence, since  it  has  in  every  respect  corresponded  to  the  doc- 
trines which  he  has  taught ;  it  has  been  determined  by  the 
people  (and  may  the  determination  be  fortunate)  to  praise 
Zeno,  tho  son  of  Innaseas,  the  Cittieean.  and  to  present  him 
with  a  golden  cr«  wn  in  accordance  with  the  law,  on  account 
of  his  virtue  and  ;emperance,  and  to  build  him  a  tomb  in  the 


z  E  N  o .  395 

Ceramicus,  at  the  public  expense.  And  the  people  has  ap- 
pointed by  its  vote  five  men  from  among  the  citizens  of  Athens, 
who  shall  see  to  the  making  of  the  crown  and  the  building  of 
the  tomb.  And  the  scribe  of  the  borough  shall  enrol  the  de- 
cree and  engrave  it  on  two  pillars,  and  he  shall  be  permitted 
to  place  one  pillar  in  the  Academy,  and  one  in  the  Lyceum. 
And  he  who  is  appointed  to  superintend  the  work  shall  divide 
the  expense  that  the  pillars  amount  to,  in  such  a  way  that 
every  one  may  understand  that  the  whole  people  of  Athens 
honors  good  men  both  while  they  are  living  and  after  they 
are  dead.  And  Thrason  of  Anacasa,  Philocles  of  the  Piraeus, 
Phaadrus  of  Anaphlystos,  Medon  of  Acharnses,  Mecythus  of 
Sypalyttas,  and  Dion  of  Paania,  are  hereby  appointed  to  super- 
intend the  building  of  the  tomb." 

These  then  are  the  terms  of  the  decree. 

But  Antigonus,  of  Oarystos,  says  that  Zeno  himself  never 
denied  that  he  was  a  native  of  Cittium.  For  that  when  on 
one  occasion,  there  was  a  citizen  of  that  town  who  had  con- 
tributed to  the  building  of  some  baths,  and  was  having  his 
name  engraved  on  the  pillar,  as  the  countryman  of  Zeno  the 
philosopher,  he  bade  them  add,  u  Of  Cittium." 

At  another  time,  when  he  had  had  a  hollow  covering  made 
for  some  vessel,  he  carried  it  about  for  some  money,  in  order 
to  procure  present  relief  for  some  difficulties  which  were  dis- 
tressing Crates  his  master.  And  they  say  that  he,  when  he 
first  arrived  in  Greece,  had  more  than  a  thousand  talents, 
which  he  lent  out  at  nautical  usury.  And  he  used  to  eat  lit- 
tle loaves  and  honey,  and  to  drink  a  small  quantity  of  sweet 
smelling  wine.  He  had  a  very  few  youthful  acquaintances  of 
the  male  sex,  and  he  did  not  cultivate  them  much,  lest  he 
should  be  thought  to  be  a  misogynist.  And  he  dwelt  in  the 
same  house  with  Persaaus ;  and  once,  when  he  brought  in  a 
female  flute-player  to  him,  he  hastened  to  bring  her  back  to 
him. 

He  was,  it  is  said,  of  a  very  accomi  lodating  temper ;  so 


396  ZENO. 

much  so,  that  Antigonus,  the  king,  often  came  to  dine  with 
him,  and  often  carried  him  off  to  (line  with  him,  at  the  house 
of  Aristocles  the  harp-player;  but  when  he  was  there,  he 
would  presently  steal  away. 

It  is  also  said  that  he  avoided  a  crowd  with  great  care,  so 
that  he  used  to  sit  at  the  end  of  a  bench,  in  order  at  all 
events  to  avoid  being  incommoded  on  one  side.  And  he  never 
used  to  walk  with  more  than  two  or  three  companions.  And 
he  used  at  times  to  exact  a  piece  of  money  from  all  who  came 
to  hear  him,  with  a  view  of  not  being  distressed  by  numbers  ; 
and  this  story  is  told  by  Oleanthes,  in  his  treatise  on  Brazen 
Money.  And  when  he  was  surrounded  by  any  great  crowd, 
he  would  point  to  a  balustrade  of  wood  at  the  end  of  the 
colonnade  which  surrounded  an  altar,  and  say,  "  That  was 
once  in  the  middle  of  this  place,  but  it  was  placed  apart  be- 
cause it  was  in  people's  way ;  and  now,  if  you  will  only  with- 
draw from  the  middle  here,  you  too  will  incommode  me  much 
less." 

When  Demochares,  the  son  of  Laches,  embraced  him  once, 
and  said  that  he  would  tell  Antigonus,  or  write  to  him  of 
everything  which  he  wanted,  as  he  always  did  everything  for 
him,  Zeno,  when  he  had  heard  him  say  this,  avoided  his  com- 
pany for  the  future.  And  it  is  said,  that  after  the  death  of 
Zeno,  Antigonus  said,  "  What  a  spectacle  have  I  lost."  On 
which  account  he  employed  Thrason,  their  ambassador,  to 
entreat  of  the  Athenians  to  allow  him  to  be  buried  in  the 
Ceramicus.  And  when  he  was  asked  why  he  had  such  an 
admiration  for  him,  he  replied,  "  Because,  though  I  gave  him 
a  great  many  important  presents,  he  was  never  elated,  and 
never  humbled." 

He  was  a  man  of  a  very  investigating  spirit,  and  one  who 
inquired  very  minutely  into  everything ;  in  reference  to  which, 
Timon,  in  his  Silli,  speaks  thus  : — 

I  saw  an  aged  woman  of  Phoenicia, 
Hungry  and  covtf  oua,  in  a  proud  obscurity, 


z  E  N  o .  397 

Longing  for  everything.    She  had  a  basket 
So  full  of  holes  that  it  retained  nothing. 
Likewise  her  mind  was  less  than  a  simdapsus.* 

He  used  to  study  very  carefully,  with  Philo,  the  dialecti- 
cian, and  to  argue  with  him  at  their  mutual  leisure ;  on  which 
account  he  excited  the  wonder  of  the  younger  Zeno,  no  less 
than  Diodorus  his  master. 

There  were  also  a  lot  of  dirty  beggars  always  about  him,  as 
Timon  tells  us,  where  he  says : — 

Till  he  collected  a  vast  cloud  of  beggars, 
Who  were  of  all  men  in  the  world  the  poorest, 
And  the  most  worthless  citizens  of  Athens. 

And  he  himself  was  a  man  of  a  morose  and  bitter  counte- 
nance, with  a  constantly  frowning  expression.  He  was  very 
economical,  and  descended  even  to  the  meanness  of  the  barba- 
rians, under  the  pretence  of  economy. 

If  he  reproved  any  one,  he  did  it  with  brevity  and  without 
exaggeration,  and,  as  it  were,  at  a  distance.  I  allude,  for  in- 
stance, to  the  way  in  which  he  spoke  of  a  man  who  took  ex- 
ceeding pains  in  setting  himself  off;  for  as  he  was  crossing  a 
gutter  with  great  hesitation,  he  said,  "  He  is  right  to  look 
down  upon  the  mud,  for  he  cannot  see  himself  in  it."  And 
when  some  Cynic  one  day  said  that  he  had  no  oil  in  his  cruse, 
and  asked  him  for  some,  he  refused  to  give  him  any,  but  bade 
him  go  away  and  consider  which  of  the  two  was  the  more  im- 
pudent. He  was  very  much  in  love  with  Chremonides ;  and 
once,  when  he  and  Cleanthes  were  both  sitting  by  him,  he  got 
up ;  and  as  Cleanthes  wondered  at  this,  he  said,  "  I  hear  from 
skilful  physicians  that  the  best  thing  for  some  tumors  is  rest." 
Once,  when  two  people  were  sitting  above  him  at  table  at  a 
banquet,  and  the  one  next  him  kept  kicking  the  other  with  his 
foot,  he  himself  kicked  him  with  his  knee ;  and  when  he 
turned  round  upon  him  for  doing  so,  he  said,  "  Why  then  do 

*  A  sort  of  guitar  or  violin. 

34 


398  z  E  N  o . 

you  think  that  your  other  neighbor  is  to  be  treated  in  this  way 
by  you?" 

On  one  occasion  he  said  to  a  man  who  was  very  fond  of 
young  boys,  that  "  Schoolmasters  who  were  always  associat- 
ing with  boys  had  no  more  intellect  than  the  boys  themselves." 
He  used  also  to  say  that  the  discourses  of  those  men  who  were 
careful  to  avoid  solecisms,  and  to  adhere  to  the  strictest  rules 
of  composition,  were  like  Alexandrine  money,  they  were 
pleasing  to  the  eye  and  well-formed  like  the  coni,  but  were 
nothing  the  better  for  that ;  but  those  who  were  not  so  par- 
ticular he  likened  to  the  Attic  tessedrachmas,  which  were 
struck  at  random  and  without  any  great  nicety,  and  so  he  said 
that  their  discourses  often  outweighed  the  more  polished  style 
of  the  others.  And  when  Ariston,  his  disciple,  had  been  hold- 
ing forth'a  good  deal  without  much  wit,  but  still  in  some  points 
with  a  good  deal  of  readiness  and  confidence,  he  said  to  him, 
"  It  would  be  impossible  for  you  to  speak  thus,  if  your  father 
had  not  been  drunk  when  he  begat  you ;"  and  for  the  same 
reason  he  nicknamed  him  the  chatterer,  as  he  himself  was 
very  concise  in  his  speeches.  Once,  when  he  was  in  company 
with  an  epicure  who  usually  left  nothing  for  his  messmates, 
and  when  a  large  fish  was  set  before  him,  he  took  it  all  as  if 
he  could  eat  the  whole  of  it ;  and  when  the  others  looked  at 
him  with  astonishment,  he  said,  "  What  then  do  you  think 
that  your  companions  feel  every  day,  if  you  cannot  bear  with 
my  gluttony  for  one  day  ?" 

On  one  occasion,  when  a  youth  was  asking  him  questions 
with  a  pertinacity  unsuited  to  his  age,  he  led  him  to  a  looking 
glass  and  bade  him  look  at  himself,  and  then  asked  him 
whether  such  questions  appeared  suitable  to  the  face  he  saw 
there.  And  when  a  man  said  before  him  once,  that  in  most 
points  he  did  not  agree  with  the  doctrines  of  Antisthenes,  he 
quoted  to  him  an  apophthegm  of  Sophocles,  and  asked  him 
whether  he  thought  there  was  much  sense  in  that,  and  when 
he  said  that  he  did  not  know,  "  Are  you  not  then  ashamed," 


z  E  N  o .  399 

said  he,  "  to  pick  out  and  recollect  anything  bad  which  may 
have  been  said  by  Antisthenes,  but  not  to  regard  or  remember 
whatever  is  said  that  is  good  ?"  A  man  once  said,  that  the 
sayings  of  the  philosophers  appeared  to  him  very  trivial ; 
"  You  say  true,"  replied  Zeno,  "  and  their  syllables,  too,  ought 
to  be  short,  if  that  is  possible."  When  some  one  spoke  to  him 
of  Polemo,  and  said  that  he  proposed  one  question  for  discuss- 
ion and  then  argued  another,  he  became  angry,  and  said, 
"  At  what  value  did  he  estimate  the  subject  that  had  been 
proposed  ?"  And  he  said  that  a  man  who  was  to  discuss  a 
question  ought  to  have  a  loud  voice  and  great  energy,  like  the 
actors,  but  not  to  open  his  mouth  too  wide,  which  those  who 
speak  a  great  deal  but  only  talk  nonsense  usually  do.  And  he 
used  to  say  that  there  was  no  need  for  those  who  argued  well 
to  leave  their  hearers  room  to  look  about  them,  as  good  work- 
men do  who  want  to  have  their  work  seen ;  but  that,  on  the 
contrary,  those  who  are  listening  to  them  ought  to  be  so  at- 
tentive to  all  that  is  said  as  to  have  no  leisure  to  take  notes. 

Once  when  a  young  man  was  talking  a  great  deal,  he  said, 
"Your  ears  have  run  down  into  your  tongue."  On  one  occa- 
sion a  very  handsome  man  was  saying  that  a  wise  man  did 
not  appear  to  him  likely  to  fall  in  love  ;  u  Then,"  said  he,  "  I 
cannot  imagine  anything  that  will  be  more  miserable  than  you 
good-looking  fellows."  He  also  used  often  to  say  that  "  Most 
philosophers  were  wise  in  great  things,  but  ignorant  of  petty 
subjects  and  chance  details ;"  and  he  used  to  cite  the  saying  of 
Caphesius,  who  when  one  of  his  pupils  was  laboring  hard  to 
be  able  to  blow  very  powerfully,  gave  him  a  slap,  and  said, 
that  "  excellence  did  not  depend  upon  greatness,  but  greatness 
on  excellence."  Once,  when  a  young  man  was  arguing  very 
confidently,  he  said,  "I  should  not  like  to  say,  O  youth,  all 
that  occurs  to  me."  And  once,  when  a  handsome  and  wealthy 
Rhodian,  but  one  who  had  no  other  qualification,  was  pressing 
him  to  take  him  as  a  pupil,  he,  as  he  was  not  inclined  to  re- 
ceive him,  first  of  all  made  him  sit  on  the  dusty  seats  that  he 


400  Z  E  N  O . 

might  dirt  his  cloak,  then  he  put  him  down  in  the  place  of  the 
poor  that  he  might  rub  against  their  rags,  and  at  last  the 
young  man  went  away.  One  of  his  sayings  used  to  be,  that 
"  Vanity  was  the  most  unbecoming  of  all  things,  and  especially 
so  in  the  young."  Another  was,  that  "  One  ought  not  to  try 
and  recollect  the  exact  words  and  expressions  of  a  discourse, 
but  to  fix  all  one's  attention  on  the  arrangement  of  the  argu- 
ments, instead  of  treating  it  as  if  it  were  a  piece  of  boiled 
meat,  or  some  delicate  eatable."  He  used  also  to  say,  that 
"  Young  men  ought  to  maintain  the  most  scrupulous  reserve 
in  their  walking,  their  gait,  and  their  dress ;"  and  he  was 
constantly  quoting  the  lines  of  Euripides  on  Capaneus,  that — 

His  wealth  was  ample, 
But  yet  no  pride  did  mingle  with  his  state, 
Nor  had  he  haughty  thought,  or  arrogance, 
More  than  the  poorest  man. 

And  one  of  his  sayings  used  to  be  that  "  Nothing  was  more 
unfriendly  to  the  comprehension  of  the  accurate  sciences  than 
poetry ;"  and  that  u  There  was  nothing  that  we  stood  in  so 
much  need  of  as  time."  When  he  was  asked  what  a  friend 
was,  he  replied,  "  Another  I."  They  say  that  he  was  once 
scourging  a  slave,  whom  he  had  detected  in  theft ;  and  when 
he  said  to  him,  "  It  was  fated  that  I  should  steal ;"  he  re- 
joined, "Yes,  and  that  you  should  be  beaten."  He  used  to 
call  beauty  the  flower  of  the  voice  ;  but  some  report  this  as 
as  if  he  had  said  that  the  voice  is  the  flower  of  beauty.  On 
one  occasion,  when  he  saw  a  slave  belonging  to  one  of  his 
friends  severely  bruised,  he  said  to  his  friend,  "  I  see  the  foot- 
steps of  your  anger."  He  once  accosted  a  man  who  was  all 
over  unguents  and  perfumes,  "  Who  is  this  who  smells  like 
a  woman  ?"  When  Dionysius  Metathemenus  asked  him  why 
he  was  the  only  person  whom  he  did  not  correct,  he  replied, 
"  Because  I  have  no  confidence  in  you."  A  young  man  was 
talking  a  great  deal  o*  nonsense,  and  he  said  to  him,  "  This  is 


Z  E  N  O  .  401 

the  reason  why  we  have  two  ears  and  only  one  mouth,  that 
we  may  hear  more  and  speak  less." 

Once,  when  he  was  at  an  entertainment  and  remained 
wholly  silent,  he  was  asked  what  the  reason  was ;  and  so  he 
bade  the  person  who  found  fault  with  him  to  tell  the  king  that 
there  was  a  man  in  the  room  who  knew  how  to  hold  his 
tongue ;  now  the  people  who  asked  him  this  were  ambassa- 
dors who  had  come  from  Ptolemy,  and  who  wished  to  know 
what  report  they  were  to  make  of  him  to  the.  king.  He  was 
once  asked  how  he  felt  when  people  abused  him,  and  he  said, 
"  As  an  ambassador  feels  when  he  is  sent  away  without  an 
answer."  Apollonius  of  Tyre  tells  us,  that  when  Crates 
dragged  him  by  the  cloak  away  from  Stilpo,  he  said,  "  O 
Crates,  the  proper  way  to  take  hold  of  philosophers  is  by  the 
ears ;  so  now  do  you  convince  me  and  drag  me  by  them ; 
but  if  you  use  force  towards  me,  my  body  may  be  with  you, 
but  my  mind  with  Stilpo." 

He  used  to  devote  a  good  deal  of  time  to  Diodorus  ;  and  he 
studied  dialectics  under  him.  And  when  he  made  a  good 
deal  of  progress  he  attached  himself  to  Polemo  because  of 
his  freedom  from  arrogance,  so  that  it  is  reported  that  he 
said  to  him,  "  I  am  not  ignorant,  O  Zeno,  that  you  slip  into 
the  garden-door  and  steal  my  doctrines,  and  then  clothe  them 
in  a  Phoenician  dress."  "When  a  dialectician  once  showed 
him  seven  species  of  dialectic  argument  in  the  mowing  argu- 
ment,* he  asked  him  how  much  he  charged  for  them,  and 
when  he  said  "  A  hundred  drachmas,"  he  gave  him  two  hun- 
dred, so  exceedingly  devoted  was  he  to  learning. 

They  say,  too,  that  he  was  the  first  who  ever  employed  the 
word  duty  (kaihelcori),  and  who  wrote  a  treatise  on  the  sub- 
ject. And  that  he  altered  the  lines  of  Hesiod  thus  : — 

*  A  species  of  argument  so  called,  because  he  who  used  it  mowed   or 
knocked  down  his  adversaries. — Aldob. 

34 


402  Z  E  N  O  . 

He  is  the  best  of  all  men  who  submits 
To  follow  good  advice ;  he  too  is  good, 
Who  of  himself  perceives  whatever  is  fit.* 

For  he  said  that  that  man  who  had  the  capacity  to  give  a 
proper  hearing  to  what  was  said,  and  to  avail  himself  of  it, 
was  superior  to  him  who  comprehended  everything  by  his 
own  intellect ;  for  that  the  one  had  only  comprehension,  but 
the  one  who  took  good  advice  had  action  also. 

When  he  was  asked  why  he,  who  was  generally  austere,  re- 
laxed at  a  dinner  party,  h$  said,  "  Lupins  too  are  bitter,  but 
when  they  are  soaked  they  become  sweet."  And  Hecaton, 
in  the  second  book  of  his  Apophthegms,  says,  that  in  the  en- 
tertainments of  that  kind,  he  used  to  indulge  himself  freely. 
And  he  used  to  say  that  "  it  was  better  to  trip  with  the  feet, 
than  with  the  tongue."  And  that  "  goodness  was  attained  by 
little  and  little,  but  was  not  itself  a  small  thing."  Some 
authors,  however,  attribute  this  saying  to  Socrates. 

He  was  a  person  of  great  powers  of  abstinence  and  en- 
durance ;  and  of  very  simple  habits,  living  on  food  which  re- 
quired no  fire  to  dress  it,  and  wearing  a  thin  cloak,  so  that  it 
was  said  of  him :  — 

The  cold  of  winter,  and  the  ceaseless  rain, 
Come  powerless  against  him  ;  weak  is  the  part 
Of  the  fierce  summer  sun,  or  fell  disease, 
To  bend  that  iron  frame.     He  stands  apart, 
In  nought  resembling  the  vast  common  crowd  ; 
But,  patient  and  unwearied,  night  and  day, 
Clings  to  his  studies  and  philosophy. 

The  comic  poets,  without  intending  it,  praise  him  in  their 

*  The  lines  i;  i  Hesiod  are  :— 

That  man  is  best,  whose  unassisted  wit 
Perceives  at  once  what  in  each  case  is  fit. 
And  next  to  him,  he  surely  is  most  wise, 
Who  willingly  submits  to  good  advice. 


Z  E  N  O  .  403 

very  attempts  to  turn  him  into  ridicule.  Philemon  speaks 
thus  of  him  in  his  play  entitled  the  Philosophers  : — 

This  man  adopts  a  new  philosophy, 
He  teaches  to  be  hungry  ;  nevertheless, 
He  gets  disciples.    Bread  his  only  food, 
His  best  desert  dried  figs ;  water  his  drink. 

But  some  attribute  these  lines  to  Posidippus.  And  they 
have  become  almost  a  proverb.  Accordingly,  it  used  to  be 
said  of  him,  "  More  temperate  than  Zeno  the  philosopher." 
Posidippus  also  writes  thus  in  his  Men  Transported  : — 

So  that  for  ten  whole  days  he  did  appear 
More  temperate  than  Zeno's  self. 

For  in  reality  he  did  surpass  all  men  in  this  description  of 
virtue,  and  in  dignity  of  demeanor,  and,  by  Jove,  in  happi- 
ness. For  he  lived  ninety-eight  years,  and  then  died,  without 
any  disease,  and  continuing  in  good  health  to  the  last.  But 
Persaeus,  in  his  Ethical  School,  states  that  he  died  at  the  age 
of  seventy-two,  and  that  he  came  to  Athens  when  he  was 
twenty-two  years  old.  But  Apollonius  says  that  he  presided 
over  his  school  for  forty-eight  years. 

He  died  in  the  following  manner.  When  he  was  going  out 
of  his  school,  he  tripped  and  broke  one  of  his  toes ;  and 
striking  the  ground  with  his  hand,  he  repeated  the  line  out 
of  the  Niobe  : — 

I  come ;  why  call  me  so  ? 

And  immediately  he  strangled  himself,  and  so  he  died.  But 
the  Athenians  buried  him  in  the  Ceramicus,  and  honored  him 
with  the  decrees  which  I  have  mentioned  before,  bearing  wit- 
ness to  his  virtue.  Antipater,  the  Sidonian,  wrote  an  inscrip- 
tion for  him,  which  runs  thus  : — 

Here  CittiunVs  pride,  wise  Zeno,  lies,  who  climb'd 

The  summits  of  Olympus  ;  but  unmoved 

By  wicked  thoughts  ne'er  strove  to  rise  on  Ossa 

The  pine-clad  Pelion ;  nor  did  he  emulate 

The  immortal  toils  of  Hercules ;  but  found 

A  new  way  for  himself  to  the  highest  heaven, 

Bv  virtHP,  temperance,  and  modesty. 


404  Z  E  N  O  . 

And  Zenodotus,  the  Stoic,  a  disciple  of  Diogenes,  wrote 
another : — 

You  made  contentment  the  chief  rule  of  life, 
Despising  haughty  wealth,  O  God-like  Zeno. 
With  solemn  look,  and  hoary  brow  serene, 
\'ou  taught  a  manly  doctrine  ;  and  didst  found 
By  your  deep  wisdom,  a  great  novel  school, 
Chaste  parent  of  unfearing  liberty. 
And  if  your  country  was  Phrenicia, 
Why  need  we  grieve  ?  from  that  land  Cadmus  came, 
Who  gave  to  Greece  her  written  books  of  wisdom. 

A.theneeus,  the  epigrammatic  poet,  speaks  thus  of  all  the 
Stoics  in  common  : — 

O,  ye  who've  learnt  the  doctrines  of  the  Porch, 
And  have  committed  to  your  books  divine 
The  best  of  human  learning  ;  teaching  men 
That  the  mind's  virtue  is  the  only  good. 
And  she  it  is  who  keeps  the  lives  of  men, 
And  cities,  safer  than  high  gates  or  walls. 
But  those  who  place  their  happiness  in  pleasure, 
Are  led  by  the  least  worthy  of  the  Muses. 

And  we  also  have  ourselves  spoken  of  the  manner  of  Zeno's 
death,  in  our  collection  of  poems  in  all  metres,  in  the  follow- 
ing terms:  — 

Some  say  that  Zeno,  pride  of  Cittium, 
Died  of  old  age,  when  weak  and  quite  worn  out 
Some  say  that  famine's  cruel  tooth  did  slay  him  ; 
Some  that  he  fell,  and  striking  hard  the  ground, 
Said,  "  See,  I  come,  why  call  me  thus  impatiently  ?" 

For  some  say  that  this  was  the  way  in  which  he  died. 
this  is  enough  to  say  concerning  his  death. 

But  Demetrius,  the  Magnesian,  says,  in  his  essay  on  People 
of  the  Same  Name,  that  his  father  Innaseas  often  came  to 
Athens,  as  he  was  a  merchant,  and  that  he  used  to  bring  back 
many  of  the  books  of  the  Socratic  Philosophers,  to  Zeno, 
while  he  was  still  only  a  boy ;  and  that,  from  this  circumstance, 
Zeno  had  already  become  talked  of  in  his  own  country ;  mid 
that  in  consequence  of  this  he  went  to  Athens,  where  he  at- 


ZENO.  405 

tabbed  himself  to  Crates.  And  it  seems,  he  adds,  that  it  was 
he  who  first  recommended  a  clear  enunciation  of  principles, 
as  the  best  remedy  for  error.  He  is  said,  too,  to  have  been  in 
the  habit  of  swearing  "  By  Capers,"  as  Socrates  swore  "  By 
the  Dog." 

Some,  indeed,  among  whom  is  Cassius  the  Sceptic,  attack 
Zeno  on  many  accounts,  saying  first  of  all  that  he  denounced 
the  general  system  of  education  in  vogue  at  the  time,  as  use- 
less, which  he  did  in  the  beginning  of  his  Republic.  And  in 
the  second  place,  that  he  used  to  call  all  who  were  not  virtuous, 
adversaries,  and  enemies,  and  slaves,  and  unfriendly  to  one 
another,  parents  to  their  children,  brethren  to  brethren,  and 
kinsmen  to  kinsmen;  and  again,  that  in  his  Republic,  he 
speaks  of  the  virtuous  as  the  only  citizens,  and  friends,  and  re- 
lations, and  free  men,  so  that  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Stoic, 
even  parents  and  their  children  are  enemies ;  for  they  are  not 
wise.  Also,  that  he  lays  down  the  principle  of  the  community 
of  woman  both  in  his  Republic  and  in  a  poem  of  two  hundred 
verses,  and  teaches  that  neither  temples  nor  courts  of  law,  nor 
gymnasia,  ought  to  be  erected  in  a  city ;  moreover,  that  he 
writes  thus  about  money :  "  That  he  does  not  think  that  men 
ought  to  coin  money  either  for  purposes  of  traffic,  or  travel- 
ling." Besides  all  this,  he  enjoins  men  and  women  to  wear 
the  same  dress,  and  to  leave  no  part  of  their  person  uncovered. 

And  that  this  treatise  on  the  Republic  is  his  work  we  are 
assured  by  Chrysippus,  in  his  Republic.  He  also  discussed 
amatory  subjects  in  the  beginning  of  that  book  of  his  which 
is  entitled  the  Art  of  Love.  And  in  his  Conversations  he 
writes  in  a  similar  manner. 

Such  are  the  charges  made  against  him  by  Cassius,  and  also 
by  Isidorus,  of  Pergamus,  the  orator,  who  says  that  all  the  un- 
becoming doctrines  and  assertions  of  the  Stoics  were  cut  out 
of  their  books  by  Athenodorus,  the  Stoic,  who  was  the  curator 
of  the  library  at  Pergamus.  And  that  subsequently  they  were 
replaced,  as  Athenodorus  was  detected,  and  placed  in  a  situa- 


406  ZENO,      THE      ELEATIC. 

tion  of  great  danger ;  and  this  is  sufficient  to  say  about  those 
doctrines  of  his  which  were  impugned. 

The  disciples  of  Zeno  were  very  numerous.  The  most  emi- 
nent were,  first  of  all,  Perseus,  of  Cittium,  the  son  of  Deme- 
trius, whom  some  call  a  friend  of  his,  but  others  describe  him 
as  a  servant  and  one  of  the  amanuenses  who  were  sent  to  him 
by  Antigonus,  to  whose  son,  Halcymeus,  he  also  acted  as 
tutor.  And  Antigonus  once,  wishing  to  make  trial  of  him, 
caused  some  false  news  to  be  brought  to  him  that  his  estate 
had  been  ravaged  by  the  enemy ;  and  as  he  began  to  look 
gloomy  at  this  news,  he  said  to  him,  "  You  see  that  wealth  is 
not  a  matter  of  indifference." 


ZENO,    THE  ELEATIC). 

ZENO  was  a  native  of  Velia.  Apollodorus,  in  his  Chron- 
icles, says  that  he  was  by  nature  the  son  of  Telentagoras,  but 
by  adoption  the  son  of  Parmenides. 

Timon  speaks  thus  of  him  and  Melissus : — 

Great  is  the  strength,  invincible  the  might 
Of  Zeno,  skilled  to  argue  on  both  sides 
Of  any  question,  the  universal  critic ; 
And  of  Melissus  too.    They  rose  superior 
To  prejudice  in  general ;  only  yielding 
To  very  few. 

And  Zeno  had  been  a  pupil  of  Parmeuides,  and  had  been 
on  other  accounts  greatly  attached  to  him. 

He  was  a  tall  man.  Aristotle,  in  his  Sophist,  says  that  he 
was  the  inventor  of  dialectics,  as  Empedocles  was  of  rhetoric. 
And  he  was  a  man  of  the  greatest  nobleness  of  spirit,  both  in 
philosophy  and  in  politics.  There  arc-  also  many  books  ex- 
tant, which  are  attributed  to  him,  full  :f  great  learning  and 
wisdom. 


ZENO,      THE      ELEATIC.  407 

He,  wishing  ';o  put  an  end  to  the  power  of  JSTearcb.es,  the 
tyrant  (some,  however,  call  the  tyrant  Diomedon),  was  arrest- 
ed, as  we  are  informed  by  Heraclides,  in  his  abridgment  of 
Satyrus.  And  when  he  was  examined  as  to  his  accomplices, 
and  as  to  the  arms  which  he  was  taking  to  Lipara,  he 
named  all  the  friends  of  the  tyrant  as  his  accomplices,  wish- 
ing to  make  him  feel  himself  alone.  And  then,  after  he  had 
mentioned  some  names,  he  said  that  he  wished  to  whisper 
something  privately  to  the  tyrant ;  and  when  he  came  near 
him  he  bit  him,  and  would  not  leave  his  hold  till  he  was 
stabbed.  And  the  same  thing  happened  to  Aristogiton,  the 
tyrant  slayer.  But  Demetrius,  in  his  treatise  on  People  of 
the  Same  Name,  says  that  it  was  his  nose  that  he  bit  off. 

Moreover,  Antisthenes,  in -his  Successions,  says  that  after 
he  had  given  him  information  against  his  friends,  he  was 
asked  by  the  tyrant  if  there  was  any  one  else.  And  he 
replied,  u  Yes,  you,  the  destruction  of  the  city."  And  that 
he  also  said  to  the  bystanders,  "  I  marvel  at  your  coward- 
ice, if  you  submit  to  be  slaves  to  the  tyrant  out  of  fear  of 
such  pains  as  I  am  now  enduring."  And  at  last  he  bit  off 
his  tongue  and  spit  it  at  him ;  and  the  citizens  immediately 
rushed  forward,  and  slew  the  tyrant  with  stones.  And 
this  is  the  account  that  is  given  by  almost  every  one. 

But  Hermippus  says  that  he  was  put  into  a  mortar  and 
pounded  to  death.  And  we  ourselves  have  written  the  fol- 
lowing epigram  on  him  : — 

Your  noble  wish,  O  Zeno,  was  to  slay 
A  cruel  tyrant,  freeing  Elea 
From  the  harsh  bonds  of  shameful  slavery, 
But  you  were  disappointed  ;  for  the  tyrant 
Pounded  you  in  a  mortar.    I  say  wrong, 
He  only  crushed  your  body,  and  not  you. 

Zeno  was  an  excellent  man  in  other  respects ;  and  he  was 
also  a  despiser  of  great  men  in  an  equal  degree  with  Heracli- 
tus ;  for  he,  too,  preferred  the  town  which  was  formerly 


408  ZENO,      THE     ELEATIC. 

called  Hyele,  and  afterwards  Elea,  being  a  colony  of  the  Pho- 
cseans,  and  his  own  native  place,  a  poor  city  possessed  of  no 
other  importance  than  the  knowledge  of  how  to  raise  virtu- 
ous citizens  to  the  pride  of  the  Athenians;  so  that  he  did 
not  often  visit  them,  but  spent  his  life  at  home. 

They  say  that  when  he  was  reproached,  he  was  indignant ; 
and  that  when  some  one  blamed  him,  he  replied,  "  If  when  I 
am  reproached,  I  am  not  angered,  then  I  shall  not  be  pleased 
when  I  arn  praised." 

This  Zeno  flourished  about  the  seventy-ninth  Olympiad. 


THE      END. 


TO  DESK  MOM 


LOAN  DEPT. 


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IN  7    '62  K 


25Nov'630C 



REC'D  LD 


LD  21A-50m.3f'62 

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University  of  CaJifornia 

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